Full text of "Works;"
Founded by
m i
GOLDWIN SMITH
HARRIET°5MITH
1901
Constitutional j£0itlon
The Works of
Alexander Hamilton
Edited by
Henry Cabot Lodge
" The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or
musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature,
by the hand of the Divinity itself, and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power."
[Hamilton— The Farmer Refuted, 1775, .flit. 18.]
u We are laboring hard to establish in this country principles more and more national,
and free from all foreign ingredients, so that we may be neither ' Greeks nor Trojans,' bat
truly Americans." — [Hamilton to King, 1796, JEt. 39.]
Volume IX
G. P. Putnam's Sons
New York and London
Gbe ftntcfterbocfcer press
N
Zbc "Knickerbocker prcse, flew Korfe
-
CONTENTS
Miscellaneous Papers — Continued :
Defence of the Funding System — Con-
tinued: .......
Private Correspondence:
To Edward Stevens
TO TlLEMAN CRUGER
To the Provincial Congress of New York .
To the Honorable Convention of New York,
To the Provincial Congress .
to gouverneur morris, robert livingston,
and William Allison, Esqs. . .
to gouverneur morris, etc.
To the Committee of the New York Conven-
tion
To Gouverneur Morris, etc. .
To the Committee of the New York Conven-
tion . . .
To William Livingston .
To William Duer .
To Gouverneur Morris .
To Robert R. Livingston
To Dr. Hugh Knox .
To Gouverneur Morris .
To Robert R. Livingston
To Gouverneur Morris .
To the Honorable John Hancock,
of Congress
To Washington
PAGB
President
37
38
40
42
44
45
47
5o
54
56
59
63
65
77
82
86
95
99
101
103
IV
Contents
Private Correspondence — Continued:
To General Gates .
To Washington
To General Gates .
To Washington
To General Putnam
To Governor George Clinton
To William Duer, M.C.
To Lafayette .
To Washington
To Elias Boudinot .
To Lord Stirling (?)
To Washington
To Elias Boudinot .
To
To Baron Steuben .
Narrative of an Affair of Honor between
General Lee and Colonel Laurens
To the Honorable John Jay, President op
Congress .
To Miss Livingston.
To Baron Steuben .
To Otho H. Williams
To Major Lee or, in his Absence, Captain
McLane
To Col. David Henley
To Col. John Brooks
To Dr. William Gordon
To James Duane
To Baron Steuben .
To James Duane
To Col. John Brooks
To John Laurens .
To James Duane
Du Portail and Hamilton to Washington
To John Laurens .....
To Doctor William Gordon .
PAGE
IO9
III
117
119
I20
122
132
137
138
1 40
142
144
147
152
155
156
159
163
165
166
166
167
168
169
169
I70
171
172
173
176
179
184
188
Contents
V
PAGB
Private Correspondence — Continued:
To Washington 189
To Baron Steuben .
191
To James Duane
192
To General Greene
194
To Baron Steuben .
195
To Washington
195
To the Chevalier De Ternay
196
To Baron Steuben .
199
To General Anthony Wayne
200
To Baron Steuben .
201
To Miss Schuyler .
202
To James Duane
204
To Washington
205
To General Greene
206
To Miss Schuyler .
206
To John Laurens .
209
To Isaac Sears
224
To James Duane
225
To Washington
226
To ...
230
To Philip Schuyler
232
To General Greene
-' 237
To Washington
. 238
To Mrs. Hamilton .
243
To Washington
243
To Mrs. Hamilton .
244
To Lafayette
247
To Mrs. Hamilton .
250
To Washington
251
To Richard K. Meade
253
To Robert Morris .
255
To General Knox .
256
To Robert Morris .
259
To Comfort Sands .
261
To Robert Morris .
262
To Governor Clinton
263
VI
Contents
Private Correspondence — Continued
To Robert Morris
To Governor Clinton
To the County Treasurers
To Robert Morris .
To John Laurens .
To Governor Clinton
To Robert Morris .
To Colonel Richard K. Meade
To Robert Morris .
To the County Treasurers
To Robert Morris .
To Timothy Pickering .
To Robert Morris .
To De Noailles
To General Greene
To Robert Morris .
To Lafayette
To the Governor of Rhode Island
To Governor Clinton
To Washington
To Governor Clinton
To Washington
To Governor Clinton
To John Dickinson .
To James Madison, Jr. .
To Mrs. Hamilton .
To John Jay .
To Governor Clinton
To Washington
To Governor Clinton
To the Honorable Thomas Mifflin, Presi
dent of Congress
To John Barker Church
To Thomas Fitzsimmons .
To GOUVERNEUR MORRIS .
To De Chastellux .
PAGE
264
266
268
269
280
28l
282
282
284
285
286
287
288
296
30I
302
303
306
308
3IO
313
322
339
35°
377
380
381
382
385
388
394
396
399
399
403
Contents
Private Correspondence — Continued;
To his Brother, James Hamilton
To Israel Wilkes .
To Washington
To Nathaniel Hazard .
To Messrs. Semphill & Co.
To John Thomas, Esq., Sheriff of West
CHESTER ....
To Washington
To ....
To Major Peirce
To Auldjo ....
To Rufus King
To Colonel Jeremiah Wadsworth
To Rufus King
To Washington
To James Madison, Jr. .
TO GOUVERNEUR MORRIS .
To James Madison, Jr. .
To John Sullivan, Esq., President of the
State of New Hampshire
To James Madison, Jr. .
To Nathaniel Chipman .
To James Madison, Jr. .
To Washington
To Samuel Broome .
To Governor Wm. Livingston
To Washington
To Theodore Sedgwick
To Nathaniel Chipman .
To Theodore Sedgwick .
To Washington
To James Madison, Jr. .
To Theodore Sedgwick .
To Rufus King
To Oliver Wolcott
To Lafayette
vn
PAGE
405
406
412
413
415
4l6
417
419
420
421
422
422
423
423
427
428
43°
432
432
438
440
441
442
442
444
446
447
45i
452
453
456
457
459
459
viii Contents
PAGE
Private Correspondence — Continued;
To James Madison, Jr 462
To Washington
463
To Timothy Pickering
464
To Col. R. H. Harrison
464
To Henry Lee
465
To William Duer .
466
To ^Edanus Burke .
467
To Timothy Pickering
468
To Winn ....
468
To Washington
469
To John Jay .
473
To Washington
474
To William Seton .
■ 476
To ...
477
To Washington
478
To Benjamin Goodhue
. 483
To Mrs. Martha Walkeb
484
To Rufus King
■ 485
To Timothy Pickering
. 487
To William Seton .
490
To William Duer .
493
To William Seton .
494
To the President, Directors, et
c, 01
' THE
Bank of New York
495
To William Seton .
496
To a Friend
• 497
To Washington
■ 497
To General Knox .
. 497
To William Seton .
. 498
To Philip Hamilton
- 499
To Nicholas Gouverneur
500
To Gulian Verplanck and Others
. 501
To William Seton .
. 501
To William Duer .
502
To William Seton .
• •
■ 503
Contents
Private Correspondence — Continued;
To the Directors and Company of thb Bank
op New York
To William Duer
To William Seton
To William Duer
To William Seton
To Colonel Edward Carrington
To General Otho H. Williams
TO GOUVERNEUR MORRIS .
To Colonel Heth and Others
To William Seton .
To Rupus King
To Elias Boudinot .
To Washington
IX
PAGE
508
508
5°9
5io
512
5i3
536
537
539
54o
54o
54i
542
MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS (Continued)
VOL. IX.-I.
MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS
DEFENCE OF THE FUNDING SYSTEM
ii
the assumption of the state debts
(Continued from Vol. VIII.)
THE theory of our constitutions with respect to
taxation is perhaps a new example in the
world — that is to say, a concurrent and co-ordinate
authority in one general head and in thirteen (now
fifteen) distinct members of a confederacy united
under that head to impose in detail upon individuals
and upon all taxable objects.
Yet experience had demonstrated that a power in
the general head to tax the States only in their
collective capacities — that is, by the system of requi-
sitions, was a system of imbecility and injustice: im-
becility, because it did not produce to the common
treasury the requisite supplies; injustice, because the
separate efforts of the States under such a system,
from the nature of things, would ever be unequal, and
consequently their contributions disproportionate.
Hence, all those who agreed in the necessity of a
union of the States tinder a common head, felt and
3
4 Alexander Hamilton
acknowledged that a change in the plan was an essen-
tial feature in a new arrangement of the constitution
of General Government.
But though agreed in this general principle, they
were not equally agreed in the application of the
rule. Some were for a general and paramount power
of taxation in the National Government, and either
a subordinate or a limited (by being confined to par-
ticular objects) power of taxation in the State Gov-
ernments. Some were for a division of the power of
taxation, giving certain branches of it exclusively to
the General Government, and other branches of it
exclusively to the State Government. Others were
for a general concurrent power of taxation in the
Federal and State Governments.
The two first opinions equally presupposed a great
difficulty of execution and danger of collision in a
concurrent power of taxation, and sought to avoid it
by different means. The last seems to have consid-
ered that difficulty and danger as less formidable
than the embarrassments which belonged to either
of the other schemes. And this opinion was adopted
by the Convention, except with regard to the duties
of imports and tonnage, which for cogent and obvi-
ous reasons was incompatible and was exclusively
vested in the Federal head.
This course was, relatively to the existing state of
things, the wisest. The subordination of the State
power of taxation to that of the General Government,
or the confining it to particular objects, would prob-
ably have been an insuperable obstacle to the adop-
tion of the Constitution. The division of the power
The Funding System 5
between the Union and the States could not have
been regulated upon any plan which would not either
have left the General Government more restricted
than was compatible with a due provision for the
exigencies of the Union, or would have so confined
the State Government as would have been equally
an impediment to the success of the Constitution.
Besides that, a truly eligible division, which con-
sulted all the cases possible by the general principles
of the Constitution, was intrinsically very difficult
if not impracticable.
But though it is admitted that the course pursued
by the Convention was the most expedient, yet it is
not the less true that the plan involved inherent and
great difficulties.
It may not unaptly be styled the Gordian-knot of
our political situation.
To me there appeared but one way of untying or
severing it, which was in practice to leave the States
under as little necessity as possible of exercising the
power of taxation. The narrowness of the limits of
its exercise on one side left the field more free and
unembarrassed to the other, and avoided essentially
the interference and collisions to be apprehended
from inherent difficulties on the plan of concurrent
jurisdiction.
Thus, to give a clear field to the Government of
the United States was so manifestly founded in good
policy that the time must come when a man of sense
would blush to dispute it.
It was essential to give effect to the objects of the
Union. As to the past, the General Government was
6 Alexander Hamilton
to provide for the debts which the war that accom-
plished our Revolution had left upon us. These were
to the debts which the same events had left upon the
States individually as five to two nearly.
For the future, the General Government, besides
providing for the expenses of its civil administration,
which from obvious causes would unavoidably ex-
ceed those of the State Governments, and for a vari-
ety of other objects tedious to enumerate or define,
was charged with the care of the common defence.
Reason and experience teach that the great mass
of expense in every country proceeds from war. Our
experience has already belied the reveries of those
dreamers or impostors who were wont to weaken the
argument arising from this source by promising to
this country a perpetual exemption from war.
In the few years of our existence our frontiers have
exhibited a state of desolating and expensive hos-
tility. How narrowly have we thus far escaped a
war with a great European Power? Who can say
how long we shall be before we may be compelled to
defend our independence against some one of the
great competitors still engaged on that theatre?
The violent passions which have agitated the
apostles of perpetual peace, and which were so near
forcing our political ship upon the rock of war, which
at this moment still impel her to the same ruinous
point, are the mirrors in which they may read the
refutation of their silly predictions, and the cer-
tainty that our nation is enough exposed to the
chances of war to render a clear stage for command-
ing all our resources of taxation indispensable. Be-
The Funding System 7
sides actual war and danger of still greater, we have
already experienced a domestic insurrection in which
more than a million has been expended.
Without an assumption of the State debts which
produced this effect, the first war with an European
Power would have convinced us of the ineligibleness
of our situation, of the weakness and embarrassment
incident to fifteen or perhaps to fifty different sys-
tems of finance.
The foundation of the observation is obvious.
Different States would have and actually have dif-
ferent predilections and prejudices on the subject of
taxation. Some incline more to excises, or taxes on
articles of consumption, than to taxes on real estate.
Others favor the latter more than the former. In
some stamp duties are not ill thought of; in others
they are odious.
Suppose, what was the natural and probable effect
of such a diversity of opinion, the States being left to
make separate provisions for their particular debts
had bottomed their provisions on different objects of
revenue; that some had occupied the most produc-
tive objects of excise ; that others had had recourse
to taxes on real estate; that some had preferred to
either duties on stamps; that a fourth class had
sought the needed revenue from duties on the aliena-
tion of certain kinds of property; and that a fifth
class had derived its provision from general assess-
ments of real and personal estate. These, with
duties on imports and exports, from which they are
excluded, and poll taxes, which are the scourge of any
society, comprise all the important branches of re-
8 Alexander Hamilton
venue. Suppose, as would have been the case if fair
provisions had been made, that in each case the taxes
had been carried as far as could be done without
oppression or overburthening the object or the per-
son, what would have been the situation of the Gen-
eral Government in case the breaking out of a war
had called for great resources?
In all but direct taxes the Constitution enjoins
uniformity. Reason and principle enjoin it with re-
spect to all taxes laid by the same government upon
the same society. What was to be done ? Revenue
could not be had from excises, because the principal
objects were already burthened by certain States
as much as they could conveniently bear and to lay
additional burthens would be equally ruinous to in-
dustry and to persons. Indeed excessive accumula-
tion prevents collection and defeats the end.
Similar reasons would be obstacles as to all the
other great branches of revenue, because different
States had previously occupied them all to the
convenient extent. The hand of the General Gov-
ernment would thus have been arrested, and the
greatest part of the resources of the community
would have been tied up, incapable of being brought
into action for the common exigencies of the nation.
Will it be said that the General Government might
still have laid the taxes on such objects as appeared
to it proper, leaving the States to change their ground
and adopt others? Who would wish to have seen
the necessity of so violent an expedient, or who could
calculate the consequences of it ?
Is it certain that a State would have thus com-
The Funding System 9
plaisantly changed a ground to which it had been
led by the coincidence of its predilections and pre-
judices ? If it had mortgaged the particular revenues
for its debt, is it certain that it would have been able
to change its ground justly and satisfactorily ? Is it
not too probable that perseverance, complaint, con-
troversy, between the general head and the members,
dissatisfaction in the community, and weakness of
measures would have been the effects of such an
experiment?
No one can doubt the dangers and inconveniences
of such a situation. No sound mind but must think
it a great recommendation of a measure that it
tended to obviate so perilous and so inauspicious a
situation.
An inference has been drawn that without the as-
sumption and with separate provisions for the State
debts, the chief part of the resources of the com-
munity would have been tied up, incapable of be-
ing brought into action for the public necessities.
Let this be still more particularly illustrated.
Suppose Massachusetts had provided for her par-
ticular debt by excises. It is certain from the mag-
nitude of her debt that to make the provision ade-
quate in this way would have required excises to be
extended as far as was practicable. Suppose Con-
necticut to have provided for her debt by stamp
duties and duties on alienations of property, which
carried to any extent not oppressive would not have
been more than an adequate fund for her debt. Sup-
pose South Carolina to have rested her debt on taxes
and assessments upon real and personal estate, which
io Alexander Hamilton
in any admissible extent would probably have been
inadequate to her debt.1
It would follow that the United States could not
touch either of those great branches of taxation,
because they had been preoccupied in those three
States as far as the subject in each case would per-
mit, and therefore additions would be insupportable
to the citizens and incapable of collection, and be-
cause Congress could not, by the Constitution or upon
principle, touch those branches in some States with-
out extending it to all.
The only palliative for this paralytic state of things
was requisitions upon the States to be raised in their
own way. No man conversant with the effects of
this system during the war of our Revolution, who
saw its impotent and unequal operation, who is a
friend to vigor in the government of his country, who
has an enlightened desire to see it in a state to
vindicate efficaciously its honor and interests, who
1 It may be said that the occupation of the several branches of reve-
nue in the way which has been stated is merely suppositious! It might
not have happened — a more partial and at the same time a more
various distribution might have left a freer stage to the United States.
The possibility of what has been stated in theory is a conclusive
argument for preferring a plan which avoided it. But more than this,
it is probable, and from circumstances was in a great degree unavoid-
able that what has been supposed should have been substantially
realized in practice. The modes of taxation in particular States and
the magnitude of their debts would have naturally led to it. And as
far as the States, in their provisions, had recourse to different objects,
though not to the full extent, so far the evil would have existed and
would have been an obstacle to a due provision for the public necessi-
ties. But besides this, it would be impossible to the State Govern-
ments to command efficaciously one principal source of taxation, that
of excises, because of the competition of industry where they were not
laid.
The Funding System n
wishes the reign of equal justice by equal effort
among the States and their citizens — no such man but
would deplore that this system should ever be again
the principal reliance of the National Government.
But it might be expected to be even more im-
potent under the present government than under the
Confederation. There the system of requisitions had
a constitutional basis. Requisitions were the mode
indicated by the Articles of Confederation for sup-
plying the general treasury, and it was natural
that their obligations should be so much the more
respected.
But under the present government there is no au-
thority for obtaining revenue in that way. A con-
trary supposition has crept in from that provision of
the Constitution which regulates that "direct taxes
shall be apportioned among the States according to
their respective numbers." But the true meaning
of this is, that when Congress are about to raise
revenue by their own authority upon those objects
which are contemplated as the objects of direct tax-
ation, the proportional measure of the quantum of the
tax to be levied in each State must be on the numbers
of such State. It is a mere rule for the exercise of
the general power of taxation vested in Congress
as to the article of direct taxes.
It does not authorize the calling upon a State to
raise such a quota of money by its own authority and
in its own way. This would be to change taxation
by Congress into taxation by the States — direct taxes
into taxes of any other description which it might
appear advisable to a State to substitute.
12 Alexander Hamilton
Requisitions are, then, unknown to our present
Constitution. They would amount, therefore, to
mere recommendations, a compliance with which
would be purely gratuitous and voluntary in theory
as well as in fact. What could be expected from such
a system?
This position alone condemns any plan which
would or might have left the United States depend-
ent on the resource of requisitions for carrying on a
war. It is against every principle of sound reason-
ing or constitutional or practical policy, to leave the
administration in a condition to depend not on legal
and obligatory provisions, but on such as are gratu-
itous and voluntary. This is to arbitrate, not to
govern.
Perhaps the force of these reasonings may be
thought to be diminished by the reflection that the
debts of the States were temporary impediments
which might be expected to cease within a certain
period.
But who would say when they would cease? It
was certain that if fairly provided for the evil would
have lasted a very considerable time, and it was un-
certain how soon a war might render it embarrassing
to the finances and dangerous to the safety of the
country.
The certain length of duration and the greatness
of the probable mischief were sufficient reasons for
removing the cause when it could so well be done.
It will be argued hereafter that the duration of
all the debts, both general and particular, suppos-
ing a fair provision, was likely to have been much
The Funding System 13
greater on the plan of separate than on that of joint
provision.
It was observed by way of objection to the as-
sumption of the State debts, that the division of the
business would facilitate a provision for the whole
debt of the country, general and particular ; that the
resource of imposts would alone enable Congress
to provide for the general debt, while the States
separately could more conveniently employ other
resources for the particular debts, and that together
they could not only better provide for the interest of
the debt but for the speedy extinguishment of the
principal. This was, in truth, the most plausible
argument which was used against the assumption.
In some of its aspects it was not without founda-
tion, and in contemplating the plan to be proposed
did not escape very serious reflection and examination.
It appeared to me well founded in this important
view: that leaving a provision for the general debt
within the compass of duties on imports, and dis-
embarrassing Congress from the necessity of resort-
ing to other and less agreeable modes of taxation, it
avoided exposing the government in its infancy, and
before it had engaged in its favor habit and opinion
to the clamor and unpopularity which was to be
feared from the resort to other means. To avoid
this inconvenience had many charms for the person
who was to propose a plan ; it seemed to have much
less risk for his reputation and quiet.
But on full and mature reflection, I yielded without
reserve to the conviction that the consideration just
mentioned, though not without weight, was greatly
1 4 Alexander Hamilton
outweighed by many other considerations, and that
in a personal view it would have been pusillanimity
and weakness to have stopped short of a provision
for the aggregate debt of the country.
Some of the reasons which determined me have
been anticipated:
i. The superior probability of justice among the
States and among the individuals composing them,
including a greater certainty of relief to the over-
burthened States and their citizens, and the advan-
tage of equalizing the condition of the citizens of all
the States as to contributions, which was incident to
the plan of a joint provision.
2. The avoiding of the collisions, heart-burnings,
and bickerings to which fifteen different and com-
prehensive systems of finance connected with a
separate provision for the State debts was subject.
3. To leave the field of revenue more open to the
United States, and thus secure to their government
and the general exigencies of the Union, including
defence and safety, a more full and complete com-
mand of the resources of the nation.
These considerations were of themselves sufficient
to outweigh that which has been stated by way of
objection, but I proceed to add others which con-
curred in determining my judgment.
The assumption would tend to consolidate and
secure public credit.
This would happen from various causes.
If it had not taken place, there would have been a
conflict of interests and feelings among the public
creditors.
The Funding System 15
The creditors of certain States, from the imprac-
ticality, admitting a disposition, of making for them
a provision equal to that which was made for the
creditors of the United States, would naturally have
felt jealousy and dissatisfaction. They would have
considered it as unjust that their claims, equally
meritorious, should be worse treated, and the sensi-
bility in certain cases would have been aggravated by
the reflection that the most productive resources,
before exclusively enjoyed by the State Government
and applied to their benefit, had been devoted to the
General Government, and applied by it to the sole
benefit of the national creditors.
This jealousy and dissatisfaction would have aug-
mented the mass of dissatisfaction from other causes
which would exist against an adequate provision for
the general debt. The sources of such dissatisfac-
tion have been stated, and it was certain that en-
mity to the government in some and the spirit of
faction in others would make them engines for
agitating the public mind. Such dissatisfactions in
a popular government especially tend to jeopardize
the security of the public creditors, and, consequently,
of the public credit.
The assumption, by uniting the interests of public
creditors of all descriptions, was calculated to pro-
duce an opposite effect. It brought into the field
an anxiety to fortify the public opinion in opposition
to the efforts of faction and of the anti-proprietary
spirit, in favor of a just and reasonable provision for
the debt and for the support of credit.
These considerations, to a mind which has been
1 6 Alexander Hamilton
attentive to the progress of things since, will have
very particular weight.
The assumption would favor public credit in an-
other sense, by promoting and enabling a more ade-
quate provision for the entire debt of the country.
This is in direct contradiction to one of the positions
which the objection that was last stated contains.
These are the reasons for a contrary opinion.
Some States — especially Massachusetts, Rhode
Island, Connecticut, South Carolina, and Georgia —
could not have made adequate provision for their
respective debts. There is the ground of experience
to assert that some States were not disposed to do it.
From the co-operation of the two causes, the debts
of a large majority of the States would have remained
without an adequate provision, and would have been
in danger of being frittered away by means incon-
sistent with the spirit of public credit; while the
United States, by assuming the State debts, and by
laying open all the resources of taxation to the com-
mand of the General Government upon a uniform
plan, could, for reasons already detailed, make a
more efficacious and complete provision for every
part of the debt than could possibly have been done
by separate provisions.
This may seem to have been a matter of no con-
cern to the General Government. But the cause of
credit and property is one and the same throughout
the States. A blow to it, in whatever State or in
whatever form, is a blow to it in every State and in
every form. The intimacy of interest and connec-
tion between the States leads to an observance in one
The Funding System 17
of what passes in another. Bad precedents influence
as well as good. They are greedily looked up to and
cited by men of loose principles who make them in-
struments of instilling doctrines and feelings hostile
to morals, property, and credit. It may be averred
as a maxim, without danger of material error, that
there cannot be a violation of public principle in any
State without spreading more or less an evil con-
tagion in all.
It is known that the relaxed conduct of the State
Governments in regard to property and credit was
one of the most serious diseases under which the
body politic labored prior to the adoption of our
present Constitution, and was a material cause of
that state of public opinion which led to its adoption.
The Constitution of the United States contained
guards against this evil. Its provisions inhibit to the
State Governments the power to make any thing but
gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts, or
to pass any law impairing the obligation of contracts,
which had been great engines of violating property,
destroying confidence and credit, and propagating
public dishonor and private distress.
In the practice of the Federal Government it was
wise to second the spirit of those provisions: 1, by
avoiding examples of those very practices which
were meant to be guarded against in the States; 2,
by removing, as far as it could be constitutionally
done, out of the way of the States, whatever would
oblige or tempt to further tampering with faith, credit,
and property.
The assumption was calculated to do this, and it
VOL. IX.—. 2
1 8 Alexander Hamilton
is not one of its least merits. It has served to pre-
vent the reiteration of examples from necessity or
choice which could not but have a malignant aspect
towards the cause of public credit.
It might be added that the national character
abroad has been rescued from stains by the same
measure. It was not easy for foreigners to distin-
guish accurately between the infractions of credit by
the State Governments and by the General. More
or less it was natural that some confusion of ideas
should prevail, and that the character of the country
at large should suffer from the crookedness of parts.
Another beneficial effect of the assumption favor-
able to public credit was the placing of all the public
funds of the country upon the same foundation.
The price and steadiness or instability of the public
funds are the barometers of public credit, and, with
due allowance for temporary circumstances, they
mark and establish the state of public credit.
It cannot be doubted by a man acquainted with
the subject, that the fluctuations, instability, and
precariousness of the value of property in funds in
this country would have been very much in a ratio
to the variety of kinds and of the foundations on
which they rested; that it would have been incom-
parably greater upon the plan of fifteen different
provisions at different rates by different author-
ities upon different principles, than upon that of
one provision upon one principle by one authority.
It is observable in the European markets that the
principles of the different species of funds afloat in-
fluence each other, though perhaps the causes that
The Funding System • 19
affect some ought either not to affect others, or to
affect them differently. Few of the many who deal
habitually, or occasionally, in the funds are able to
appreciate accurately the causes of fluctuations and
what ought to have been the consequences. The
knowing ones take advantage of the facts, and turn
it to their own advantage, commonly to the dis-
advantage of the less knowing and to the injury of
public credit.
A great mass of precarious funds in the shape of
State debts could not have failed to injure and keep
down the funds of the General Government by the
influence of appearances, by the quick and sudden
diversion of money from one channel to another, by
the manoeuvres of speculation, by the distraction of
public opinion.
There are some who reason so much a travers as to
regard a low state of the funds as desirable, because,
say they, it enables the government to sink the debt
more speedily by purchases.
But they forget that the lowness of the funds is
an argument of a bad state of credit, and that the
nation loses more by the greater purchases of foreign-
ers at low prices than it gains by its own purchases at
those prices, and the government loses infinitely
more by the higher premiums and interests which it
must in that case give for new loans than it can gain
in purchases of the bonds given for old loans at low
prices. Let it be remembered that a bond given last
year is as good as a bond given to-day ; that borrow-
ing by the government is in fact only sending its
bonds to market, and if its old bonds are low its new
20 Alexander Hamilton
bonds cannot be high. What would be thought of
the policy of a merchant who should wish to see his
notes at ten shillings in the pound?
Much clamor has been raised against the funding
system on the score of speculation, how justly will be
examined in the proper place, but what would have
been the degree of it on the plan of so many differ-
ent funds or stocks depending on so many different
provisions? It is evident that it would have been
multiplied tenfold. The legerdemain of speculation
would have had full scope for its exertion. To give
as quickly as possible elevation and stability to the
funds was a most important means of raising and
fixing public credit. The assumption, by equalizing
the condition of every part of the public debt, and
placing every part on good and on equal security,
was one of the most effectual expedients for that
purpose.
Another consequence of the assumption, contrary
to what has been supposed, and favorable to public
credit, is that it facilitated a speedy and honorable
extinguishment of the debt.
This results from the superior efficacy of unity in
the financial system; the superior and better com-
mand of the national resources, as well from the
reason assigned as from the probability of greater
skill and order in the arrangements of the General
than the State Governments.
That plan which gave a more systematic and
thorough command of every branch of national re-
sources was evidently better adapted not only to the
effectual payment of interest, but to the speedy
The Funding System 21
honorable discharge of principal, for the very reason
that greater resources could be brought into action.1
Certain States would have had to struggle end-
lessly with their debts — happy to be able to face
even the interest. But the General Government was
able to make and has already made a joint provision
which would with due dispatch absorb the whole
debt.
Besides the advantages to public safety and public
credit, consequences very favorable to the ease and
satisfaction of individuals were included in the as-
sumption, of three kinds : 1 . Lightening the burthens
absolutely of all the citizens of the United States. 2.
Equalizing their condition as to burthens of the citi-
zens of one State with those of another. 3. Bringing
certain relief in the first instance to the over-in-
debted States, and facilitating settlement of accounts.
These are the incidents of the same superiority of
faculty in the General Government to make a con-
venient provision for the whole debt.
It is a curious fact which has not made its due im-
pression, that in every State the people have found
relief from assumption, while an incomparably better
provision than before existed has been made for the
State debts.
1 1 have annexed the epithet honorable to that of speedy, because
certainly a more speedy extinguishment could have been found in
bankruptcy and fraud. There is too much cause to believe that those
who favored the intricate speckled system of State provisions secretly
had an eye to this happy resource. Its evils in every sense have been
delineated, and no one who values his character will avow it. No
sound politician will look with complacency toward it. It was of the
justice and policy of the United States to expel this corruption from the
body politic.
22 Alexander Hamilton
Let the citizens of Virginia be appealed to whether
they have not, in consequence of being exonerated
from the necessity of providing for their debt, been
relieved in degree, or kind from burthens which be-
fore pressed heavily upon them. They must answer
in the affirmative. The same inquiry will find the
same answer in every State. Men wonder at the
lightness of these burthens, and yet at the capacity
of the government to pay the interest of the debt, to
absorb a portion of the principal, and to find exten-
sive resources for defence against Indian ravages.
The solution of the enigma is in the present
financial system of the country, intrinsically more
energetic, more orderly, better directed, and more
uniform and comprehensive than could possibly have
been the case with fifteen different systems to pro-
vide for as many different loads of debt.
The effect of energy and system is to vulgar and
feeble minds a kind of magic which they do not com-
prehend, and thus they make false interpretation of
the most obvious facts. The people of several parts
of the State, relieved and happy by the effects of the
assumption, execrate the measure and its authors, to
which they owe the blessing.
The equalizing the condition of the individual
citizens of the several States by the generalizing of
the provision, is connected with this part of the sub-
ject. It has been already noticed in reference to the
justice of procedures. It deserves particular atten-
tion in the view of policy.
It is impossible to imagine any thing more calcu-
lated to breed discontent, and, between the citizens
The Funding System 23
of the United States, mutual jealousy and animosity,
than the inequality of conditions, which, without the
assumption, would have existed.
When the citizens of Massachusetts or Connecticut
bordering on New York felt themselves burdened
with heavy taxes, while their neighbors of New York
paid scarcely any, what must have been their sensa-
tions? How must they have been stung by the
sense of so unjust an inequality? How must their
envy and dissatisfaction have been excited? How
must this have tended to beget in them discontent
with the government under which they lived, and,
from discontent, to lead them to revolt?
Something of this actually took place. That
spirit of dissatisfaction which produced the insurrec-
tion in Massachusetts was in all probability promoted
by a comparison which exhibited the people of that
State as in a condition far worse than their neighbors.
If it be said that this effect was likely to be tem-
porary, destined to cease upon a settlement of ac-
counts which would bring relief to the overburdened
States, then the remark before made recurs. A set-
tlement at all was precarious and uncertain ; whether
it would bring relief even where it ought to, was still
more precarious and uncertain.
Let us conceive what would have been the effect
under the inequality of conditions which has been
stated, either if a settlement had been long procras-
tinated, or if, having been made, it did not bring
relief to the much-indebted States.
What would then have been the situation of the
public mind in those States ? Who can calculate the
24 Alexander Hamilton
mischiefs which would have attended the disap-
pointment or despair of relief and the prospect of
continuing indefinitely under such unequal loads?
It is a great recommendation of the assumption,
not only that it anticipated a relief which was indis-
pensable and which might not have come from a
settlement, but that it facilitated a settlement and
rendered a tolerable issue far more probable.
This position is thus explained:
The circumstances which have been enumerated
rendered a settlement upon strict or systematic prin-
ciples impracticable. Had the State debts remained
unassumed, the nature of the settlement which might
be made was proportionately important, and imposed
on the commissioners the duty of greater rigor and
exactness. The more this was the case, the more
difficult it was to come to any admissible or satisfac-
tory result. Adherence to principles was likely on
one side or another to produce greater mischief.
Compromise and management were essential.
The assumption of the State debts, by giving re-
lief to the much indebted States, rendered the issue,
and, consequently, the principles of the settlement,
less important. It allowed greater latitude to the
commissioners to deviate from rule, to consult ex-
pediency, to shape the result by a spirit of accom-
modation and concession to circumstances. Hence,
a settlement became more practicable in proportion
as it was less important.
I declare that I am not in the secret of the princi-
ples or maxims by which the commissioners were
governed, but from what I do know of the state of
The Funding System 25
things, with a full conviction of there being as much
disposition on their part of doing as much justice
as possible, I can entertain no doubt that the settle-
ment which they made was essentially artificial and
the result of a thousand compromises of principle.
No other settlement was possible, and I believe none
could ever have been made, had not things been put
upon a footing to enfetter the commissioners.
Thus, then, it is one of the merits of the assump-
tion, that it facilitated a settlement of accounts which
all the States were desirous of, and so has contributed
to establish their harmony. And it is fortunate that
it has so issued as to have produced relief to those
States which, notwithstanding the assumption, were
still left with considerable debts upon them.
This circumstance of there having remained such
balances ' may be urged as an objection to the
reasonings in favor of the assumption. But, to this,
two things are to be replied:
1. That my proposition to Congress embraced the
entire debt of the State, which would have given in
the first instance complete relief. The limitation by
Congress is not chargeable on my plan. It was the
effect of a compromise between the zealous friends of
assumption and some who opposed or doubted, and
was dictated in some degree by a spirit of caution.
But though by this limitation the relief was less
complete in the first instance than was intended by
my plan, enough was done to obviate the principal
1 When the Assumption Act was carried out by the commissioners
considerable balances remained, owing to Congress having allowed a
State term which could not be overstepped.
26 Alexander Hamilton
mischiefs, and to ensure that a State could not
be oppressed by the peculiar burthen remaining
upon it.
2. Another advantage incident to the assumption
was the preventing the depopulation of particular
States.
Had the overburdened States remained so any
considerable time while the citizens of other States
were lightly taxed, it could not but have promoted
extremely emigration from the more to the less bur-
dened States. This dislocation of population from
any violent cause or any extraordinary pressure on
parts of the Union cannot but be regarded as a
serious evil. It could not but disturb in some degree
the general order, the due course of industry, the due
circulation of public benefits.
One particular inconvenience would have been to
have increased the inability and distress of the over-
burdened States by lessening the population, from
the labor of which the public resources were to be
derived.
Another particular inconvenience might have been
the transferring the population of the country from
more to less beneficial situations in a national sense.
No one has been more uniformly nor more entirely
than myself in favor of the system of giving a free
course to the population and settlement of our in-
terior country, and of securing to it by the best efforts
of the government the enjoyment of those collateral
advantages on which its prosperity must depend.
This, in my opinion, is preferable as the most natural
policy, and as that which will best secure and cement
The Funding System 27
the unity of the empire. But with this policy
adopted in my most unqualified manner, I am far
from regarding it as wise to give any extraordinary
occasion or impulse to a transfer of people from the
settled to the unsettled parts of the country. This is
to retard the progress in general improvement, and to
impair for a greater length of time the vigor of the
nation, by scattering too widely and sparsely the ele-
ments of resource and strength. It is to weaken
government by enlarging too rapidly the sphere of its
action, and the Union by stretching out the links of
connection between the different parts.
The true politician will content himself by seeing
new settlements formed by the current of a redundant
population; he will submit, because it is unnatural,
and would be fruitless and unwise, to oppose even a
greater transfer than the mere surplus, by the attrac-
tions to emigration which new countries hold out;
he will seek to tie the emigrants to the friends and
brethren they leave, by a kind and liberal conduct of
the government towards them, by efficacious pro-
tection, and by sincere, persevering, and energetic
endeavors to obtain for them the free and full enjoy-
ment of those rights and advantages which local
situation requires. But he will not accelerate this
transfer by accumulating artificial disadvantages on
the already settled parts of the country ; he will even
endeavor to avoid this by removing such disadvan-
tages if casual causes have produced them.
Such without reserve is my sincere view of this
subject, and I deem it no small recommendation of
the assumption that it was a mild and equitable
28 Alexander Hamilton
expedient for preventing a violent dislocation of the
population of particular States.
It remains to mention one consideration which
naturally occurred in the reflections upon the expedi-
ency of assuming the State debts.
This is its tendency to strengthen our infant gov-
ernment by increasing the number of ligaments
between the government and the interests of
individuals.
I frankly acknowledge that this tendency as far as
it appeared to be founded was not excluded from the
calculation, for my opinion has been and is that the
true danger to our prosperity is not the overbearing
strength of the Federal head but its weakness and
imbecility for preserving the union of the States
and controlling the eccentricities of State ambition
and the explosion of factious passions. And a
measure which consistently with the Constitution
was likely to have the effect of strengthening the
fabric would have recommended itself to me on that
account.
But though this was the case; though I thought,
too, that the assumption would have in several senses
a temporary tendency of the kind alluded to, and so
far might serve as a prop to the government in the
infancy of its authority, while there was yet a numer-
ous party alive whose vanity and envy pledged them
to opposition, and before it had acquired the con-
firmations of habit and age, and though weight was
given to the argument where it was thought most
likely to have effect, yet upon the whole it was the
consideration upon which I relied least of all.
The Funding System 29
It appeared to me in a considerable degree counter-
balanced by the suggestion of an objection which has
been stated, the necessity which it imposed on the
government of resorting early to unpalatable modes
of taxation which jeopardized its popularity and gave
a handle to its enemies to attack it. It appeared to
me also entitled to the less weight, because, on the
supposition that the debt was to be extinguished
within a moderate term of years, its influence must
then be terminated, and it had not pretensions to
be considered as a permanent or lasting prop to the
government.
Besides that, it was to be foreseen that successive
transfers of considerable portions of the debt to
foreigners and accumulations at home would rapidly
enough lessen the number of ligaments, diminish the
influence upon individuals, and, the taxes continuing,
perhaps invert the effect.
Had this, then, been the weightiest motive to the
measure, it would never have received my patronage.
The great inducements with me were those which
have been previously enumerated, and chiefly the
growing simplicity and energy to the national
finances, the avoiding the collisions of multifarious
and conflicting systems, the securing to the govern-
ment for national exigencies the complete command
of the national resources, the consolidation of public
credit. These were the commanding motives, and it
is believed they were solid.
It is understood that a contrary course has been
a principal cause of embarrassment in the United
Netherlands. The separate debts of the different
30 Alexander Hamilton
provinces have been an endless source of perplexity
and financial imbecility.
But for the same reason that the effect of the
assumption to strengthen the government was a
feeble or ambiguous motive, its importance as an
objection, in the views of those who fear the over- !
bearing power of the General Government, has been [
much exaggerated. What solid ground was there for ',
all the declamation which has represented this meas-
ure as a premeditated plan for overthrowing the
State Governments and consolidating the States into
one? What room was there, in a matter of so tem-
porary and partial an operation, for the dreadful
alarms which were felt or affected?
The inconvenience of an early resort to modes of
taxation which run counter to public prejudices, has
been mentioned. Its force was felt; but then, in
addition to the reasons immediately connected with
the measure, — which led to it, there were collateral
ones which united to meet it.
The current of popularity immediately after the
adoption of the government ran strongly in its favor.
The immediate Chief Magistrate justly united in his
person the full confidence and cordial regard of the
nation.
It was not to be doubted that intrigues to un-
popularize the government would go on — that the
passions incident to faction, the natural disease of
popular governments, would grow and multiply — that
the rivalships of power would increase. And it was
to be feared that greater difficulties might exist at a
future day to introduce the most difficult species of
The Funding System 31
revenues, however necessary they might be in the then
stage of our affairs. The delay in establishing them
might even be construed into an implied condemna-
tion of them, and might be rendered an argument
against their future introduction. Even negative
precedents in such cases are not without force. While
the advantages of present situation facilitated the in-
troduction of these revenues at the time, the obstacles
that might be afterwards created rendered it advis-
able to occupy the ground, and to avoid, by anticipat-
ing, difficulties. The presidency of the actual Chief
Magistrate was a more favorable period than was
likely in a short time to recur to establish points
favorable to the just and necessary efficiency of the
government.
Besides that, it would probably have been in the
long run an unwise calculation, even of popularity,
for the government to have omitted the measure of
assumption. A weak and embarrassed government
never fails to be unpopular. It attaches to itself the
disrespect incident to weakness, and, unable to pro-
mote the public happiness, its impotencies are its
crimes. Without the assumption, the government
would have been for a long time at least under all
the entanglements and imbecilities of a complicated
clashing and disordered system of finance.
The foregoing considerations appeared to me de-
cisive for proposing an assumption of the State debts.
Experience has not led me to repent the measure, and
I believe it will more and more recommend itself even
to its enemies.
In the course of the remarks which have been made,
32 Alexander Hamilton
the considerations which combated the mode of pro-
ceeding with regard to assumption — namely, an entire
assumption of the State debts and a dereliction of the
settlement of accounts, have been anticipated. The
state of public opinion was an insuperable obstacle.
Almost every State flattered itself with being a cred-
itor, and imagined a particular interest in a settle-
ment. The renunciation of it would consequently
have destroyed the confidence and disturbed the
harmony of the States, else it would undoubtedly
have been the best policy and as good justice to
have renounced it. There was no ground of pro-
cedure more likely to promote mutual justice and
convenience, than to assume as a principle that each
State in the war had exerted itself to the extent of its
faculties, that the subsisting debts were to be paid out
of a common treasury, and that all retrospection and
reliquidation between the States were to be aban-
doned. But this great and liberal measure was
impossible. All parties accordingly concurred in
demanding a settlement.
The course of the argument has stated and replied
to all the objections to the assumption except one.
This is that it has tended to increase the mass of the
debt.
This observation has frequently been so managed
as to infuse into the minds of many, a vague, confused
conception that the public debt of the country has
been augmented in mass to the extent of the aggre-
gate sum of State debts assumed. But it were
absurd to attempt a refutation of this idea. It is
self-evident that the assumption in this respect did
The Funding System 33
nothing more than transfer the particular debts to the
Union. It united fourteen sums in one, and charged
them upon one responsibility, that of the Union,
instead of leaving them to exist separately, charge-
able on the separate responsibilities of the Union and
the individual States. The debt of the Union was in-
creased, but the debts of the several members of it
were proportionably decreased. The mass of public
debt consequently remained the same, on the in-
fallible evidence of a mathematical axiom that a
whole cannot be greater than its parts.
But the objection has had a more particular signifi-
cation. It has amounted to this, that the debts of
the States have been twice provided for, once to the
individual creditors who held evidences of State
debts, and once to the States in whose favor balances
were found at the settlement. This objection, like
most others from the same quarter, has been pre-
sented in a shape so general, inexplicit, and naked
of explanation, that it is not easy even to compre-
hend, much less to answer it. It probably turns
on a sophism or error which supposes the same
item of service or supply twice represented, once
in the evidence or voucher given by the State to
the person who served or supplied, and once in the
account of the State as a charge against the United
States.
But this supposition of double representation over-
looks the material fact that by the plan of settlement
according to the assumption the sums assumed by the
United States to individuals are charged to the State
which incurred them, and so balance and extinguish
VOL. IX.— 3.
34 Alexander Hamilton
the correlative charge for the service or supply which
was the origin of the debt.
Moreover, it is manifest in point of result that the
objection can have little if any foundation.1
1 The conclusion of this paper is lacking. All that remains unprinted
is an imperfect outline of a proof, by figures, of the proposition that
no part of the debt was paid twice.
PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE
is
Note. — A few words of explanation only are needed in addition to
what has already been said in the preface to this edition as to the
private correspondence. The letters are all from Hamilton, and,
being arranged chronologically, constitute to a certain extent an
autobiography. They may be divided into three classes : those which
were printed in the edition of 1850; those which have been printed
elsewhere and were not included in that edition; and those which are
now printed for the first time from the original manuscripts. The
letters in the edition of 1850, except in the few cases where the original
has been lost, have all been carefully collated, thanks to the untiring
kindness of Mr. D wight, who was at that time the librarian of the
State Department, with the originals in the Hamilton papers. As first
published, they abounded in errors, for the most part verbal, but some-
times more serious. These errors have been corrected, and the text is
now believed to be correct. The letters now first printed have been
drawn from many sources and have all been carefully transcribed and
collated. Those which have been printed elsewhere than in the edition
of 1850 have been collated with the originals so far as it could be done.
Unfortunately this was impossible in some instances, and particularly
in the case of several letters which are to be found only in J. C.
Hamilton's History of the Republic. Every effort has been made to
secure all the Hamilton letters extant, not only by private research,
but by public advertisement, and the editor believes that compara-
tively few letters of any importance have escaped him. Every letter
of the slightest historical value which has come under the notice of
the editor is given in full in the following pages, and all letters devoid
of historical or personal interest have been scrupulously excluded.
The source of every letter given here is indicated, except in the case
of those reprinted from the edition of 1850. The notes are intended
merely to explain the object of the letter when it is obscure, or to
identify the persons to whom the letters are addressed or who are
mentioned incidentally by the writer.
PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE
TO EDWARD STEVENS1
St. Croix, Nov. ii, 1769.
THIS just serves to acknowledge receipt of yours
per Capt. Lowndes, which was delivered me
yesterday. The truth of Capt. Lightbowen and
Lowndes' information is now verified by the presence
of your father and sister, for whose safe arrival I
pray ; and that they may convey that satisfaction to
your soul that must naturally flow from the sight of
absent friends in health; and shall, for news this
way, refer you to them. As to what you say respect-
ing your having soon the happiness of seeing us all, I
wish for an accomplishment of your hopes, provided
they are concomitant with your welfare; otherwise
not; though I doubt whether I shall be present or
not, for, to confess my weakness, Ned, my ambition
is prevalent, so that I contemn the grovelling con-
dition of a clerk or the like, to which my fortune, etc. ,
condemns me, and would willingly risk my life,
though not my character, to exalt my station. I am
confident, Ned, that my youth excludes me from any
1 Edward Stevens, the friend of Hamilton's boyhood, was the son of
Mr. Stevens, a West India planter and merchant. Hamilton's relations
with the Stevens family were very intimate, and young Stevens ac-
companied him to this country where they both were educated.
37
38 Alexander Hamilton
hopes of immediate preferment; nor do I desire it;
but I mean to prepare the way for futurity. I 'm no
philosopher, you see, and may justly be said to build
castles in the air; my folly makes me ashamed, and
I beg you 11 conceal it; yet, Neddy, we have seen
such schemes successful when the projector is con-
stant. I shall conclude saying, I wish there was a
war.
P. S. — I this morning received yours by William
Smith, and am pleased to see you give such close ap-
plication to study.
TO TILEMAN CRUGER x
St. Croix, Nov. 16, 1771.
In behalf of Mr. Nicholas Cruger 2 (who, by reason
of a very ill state of health, went from this to New
York, the 15th ult.), I have the pleasure to address
you by the long-expected sloop Thunderbolt, Capt.
William Newton, owned by Messrs. Jacob Walton,
John Harris, and Nicholas Cruger, the latter of whom
has written you fully concerning her destination,
which I need not repeat. She has on board besides
a parcel of lumber for yourself, sundry articles on
account of her owners as per inclosed bill of lading;
and when you have disposed of them, you will please
to credit each partner for one third of the proceeds.
Mr. N. Cruger 's proportion of this, and the balance
1 This letter is one of a number of similar letters written by Hamilton
while a clerk in Mr. Cruger* s counting-room. It is given merely as a
specimen of his business correspondence which was certainly remark-
able for a boy of fourteen.
2 The gentleman in whose office Hamilton was employed.
Private Correspondence 39
of your account hitherto, will more than pay for his
one third cost of her first cargo up; and for the other
two, I shall endeavor to place value in your hands
betimes. I only wish for a line from you to know
what will best answer.
Reports here represent matters in a very disagree-
able light, with regard to the Guarda Costas, which
are said to swarm upon the coast ; but as you will be
the best judge of what danger there might be, all is
submitted to your prudent direction.
Capt. Newton must arm with you, as he could not
so conveniently do it here. Give me leave to hint to
you that you cannot be too particular in your instruc-
tions to him. I think he seems to want experience in
such voyages. Messrs. Walton and John H. Cruger
are to furnish you themselves with their respective
proportion of the cost of the several cargoes.
The staves on board, if by any means convenient, I
beg may be returned by the sloop; they will com-
mand a good price here, and I suppose little or no-
thing with you; could they be got at I would not
send them down, but they are stowed promiscuously
among other things.
If convenient, please to deliver the hogsheads, now
containing the Indian meal, to the captain as water
casks, and others should he want them. I supplied
him with twenty here. I must beg your reference to
Mr. Cruger's last letter of the 2d ult. for other par-
ticulars.
Our crop will be very early, so that the utmost
dispatch is necessary to import three cargoes of
mules in due time.
4° Alexander Hamilton
TO THE PROVINCIAL CONGRESS OF NEW YORK ■
New York, May 26, 1776.
Gentlemen :
I take the liberty to request your attention to a
few particulars, which will be of considerable import-
ance to the future progress of the company under
my command : and I shall be much obliged to you for
as speedy a determination concerning them as you
can conveniently give. The most material is respect-
ing the pay. Our company, by their articles, are to
be subject to the same regulations, and to receive the
same pay, as the Continental Artillery. Hitherto I
have conformed to the standard laid down in the
Journal of the Congress, published the ioth May,
1775; but I am well informed that, by some later
regulation, the pay of the Artillery has been aug-
mented, and now stands according to the following
rates: Captain, £10. 13. 4. Captain-Lieutenant, £8.
Lieutenants, each, ^7. 6. 8. Sergeants, £3. 6. 8.
Corporals, ^3. 1. 4. Bombardiers, £3. 1. 4. Gun-
ners, £3. Matrosses, £2. 17. 4. Drummers and
Fifers, ^3. By comparing these with my pay-rolls,
you will discover a considerable difference; and I
doubt not you will be easily sensible that such a
difference should not exist.
I am not personally interested in having an aug-
mentation agreeably to the above rates, because my
own pay will remain the same as that it now is : but I
make this application on behalf of the company; as
I am fully convinced such a disadvantageous distinc-
1 Hamilton was at this time captain of an artillery company of the
New York troops.
Private Correspondence 41
tion will have a very pernicious effect on the minds
and behavior of the men. They do the same duty
with the other companies, and think themselves
entitled to the same pay. They have been already
comparing accounts ; and many marks of discontent
have lately appeared on this score. As to the cir-
cumstance of our being confined to the defence of the
colony, it will have little or no weight ; for there are
but few in the company, who would not as willingly
leave the colony on any necessary expedition, as stay
in it : and they will not, therefore, think it reasonable
to have their pay curtailed on such a consideration.
Captain Beauman, I understand, enlists all his men
on the above terms ; and this makes it difficult for me
to get a single recruit: for men will naturally go to
those who pay them best. On this account, I should
wish to be immediately authorized to offer the same
pay to all who may be inclined to enlist. The next
thing I should wish to know, is, whether I must be
allowed my actual expenses that might attend the
enlistment of men, should I send into the country
for that purpose. The expense would not be great ;
and it would enable me to complete my company at
once, and bring it the sooner into proper order and
discipline.
Also, I should be glad to be informed if my com-
pany is to be allowed the frock which is given to the
other troops as a bounty. This frock would be ex-
tremely serviceable in summer, while the men are on
fatigue ; and would put it in their power to save their
uniform much longer. I am, gentlemen, with the
greatest respect, etc.
42 Alexander Hamilton
TO THE PROVINCIAL CONGRESS
July 26, 1776.
Gentlemen:
I am obliged to trouble you to remove a difficulty
which arises respecting the quantity of subsistence
which is to be allowed my men. Inclosed you have
the rates of rations, which is the standard allowance
of the whole Continental, and even the provincial,
army; but it seems Mr. Curtenius cannot afford to
supply us with more than his contract stipulates;
which, by comparison, you will perceive is consider-
ably less than the forementioned rate.
My men, you are sensible, are, by their articles,
entitled to the same subsistence with the Continental
troops and it would be to them an insupportable dis-
crimination, as well as a breach of the terms of their
enlistment, to give them almost a third less provisions
than the whole army besides receives. I doubt not
you will readily put this matter upon a proper footing.
Hitherto we have drawn our full allowance from
Mr. Curtenius; but he did it upon the supposition
that he would have a farther consideration for the
extraordinary supply.
At present, however, he scruples to proceed in the
same way, till it can be put upon a more certain
foundation. I am, gentlemen, etc.
TO THE HONORABLE CONVENTION OF NEW YORK
New York, August, 1776.
It is necessary I should inform you that there is
at present a vacancy in my company, arising from
the promotion of Lieut. Johnson to a captaincy in one
Private Correspondence 43
of the new Gallies (which command, however, he has
since resigned for a very particular reason). As
artillery officers are scarce in proportion to the call
for them, and as myself and my remaining officers
sustain an extraordinary weight of duty on account
of the present vacancy, I shall esteem it a favor, if you
will be pleased, as soon as possible, to make up my
deficiency by a new appointment. It would be pro-
ductive of much inconvenience should not the inferior
officers succeed in course, and from this consideration
I doubt not you will think it proper to advance
Mr. Gilleland and Mr. Bean, and fill up the third
lieutenancy with some other person. I would beg
the liberty warmly to recommend to your attention
Thomas Thompson, — now first sergeant in my com-
pany,— a man highly deserving of notice and prefer-
ment. He has discharged his duty in his present
station with uncommon fidelity, assiduity, and ex-
pertness. He is a very good disciplinarian — pos-
sesses the advantage of having seen a good deal of
service in Germany, has a tolerable share of common
sense, and will not disgrace the rank of an officer and
gentleman. In a word, I verily believe he will make
an excellent lieutenant, and his advancement will be
a great encouragement and benefit to my company in
particular, and will be an animating example to all
men of merit to whose knowledge it comes. Myself
and my officers will be much obliged to the Hon. the
Convention to favor us with our commissions with all
convenient speed, as they may be highly requisite
under some circumstances that may possibly here-
after arise.
44 Alexander Hamilton
TO THE PROVINCIAL CONGRESS
Morristown, March 6, 1777.
Gentlemen:
It is necessary I should inform you of the changes
which have happened in your company of artillery,
which would have been done long ago, had I not been
prevented by sickness, from which I am but lately
recovered.
General Washington has been pleased to appoint
me one of his aids-de-camp. Captain-Lieutenant
James Moore, a promising officer, and who did credit
to the State he belonged to, died about nine weeks
ago. Lieutenant James Gilleland, some time before
that resigned his commission, prompted by domestic
inconveniences, and other motives best known to
himself. There remain now only two officers, Lieu-
tenants Bean and Thompson, and about thirty men.
The reason that the number of men is so reduced,
besides death and desertions, was owing to a breach
of orders in Lieutenant Johnson, who first began the
enlistment of the company, and who, instead of en-
gaging them during the war, according to the inten-
tion of the State, engaged them for the limited term
of a twelvemonth. The time of those enlisted by
him has expired, and for want of power to re-engage
them they have mostly entered into other corps.
I have to request you will favor me with instruc-
tions as to your future intentions. If you design to
retain the company on the particular establishment
of the State, it will be requisite to complete the num-
ber of officers, and make provision to have the com-
pany filled by a new enlistment. In this case, I
Private Correspondence 45
should beg leave to recommend to your notice, as far
as a captain-lieutenancy, Mr. Thompson. Mr. Bean
is so incurably addicted to a certain jailing, that I
cannot, in justice, give my opinion in favor of his
preferment. But if you should determine to resign
the company, as I expect you will, considering it
as an extraordinary burthen without affording any
special advantages, the Continent will readily take it
off your hands so soon as you shall intimate your
design to relinquish it. I doubt not you will see the
propriety of speedily deciding on the matter, which
the good of the service requires.
TO GOUVERNEUR MORRIS, ROBERT LIVINGSTON, AND
WILLIAM ALLISON, ESQS.1
March 20, 1777.
Gentlemen :
With cheerfulness I embrace the proposal of cor-
responding with your convention through you, and
shall from time to time, as far as my leisure will
permit and my duty warrant, communicate such
transactions as shall happen, such pieces of intelli-
gence as shall be received, and such comments upon
them as shall appear necessary to convey a true idea
of what is going on in the military line. Let me
caution you, however, that whatever opinions I shall
give in the course of our correspondence are to be
considered merely as my private sentiments, and are
never to be interpreted as an echo of those of the
1 These gentlemen formed a committee of the New York Convention.
46 Alexander Hamilton
General; since they will not be really so, and a con-
struction of the kind may lead into errors and be
productive of inconveniences.
The present season affords nothing of importance.
There are, daily , little skirmishes arising from attempts
of the enemy to forage; but which, though generally
favorable to us, are attended with consequences so
trifling and insignificant as to be scarcely worth men-
tioning. They are, indeed, of great service in the
general scale, as they serve to harass and distress the
enemy, and, by keeping them from forage, will put
them under difficulties as to the transportation of
their baggage and cannon whenever they shall think
of making any capital movement. One thing worthy
of notice is, that hardly a day passes without some
deserter coming in. The fact itself, and the accounts
they concurrently give, prove that the spirit of de-
sertion runs high; and the reason assigned for it is,
that many of the regiments have been a very long
time without pay, and that the men are most bar-
barously treated if they only dare to lisp their dis-
content on the score of it.
'T is rumored that the Congress have received a
letter from Dr. Franklin, by which he seems to be in
such high spirits as to prognosticate a favorable dis-
position of affairs in the quarter where he is. I was
just now also transiently told that he had been re-
ceived in the public character of a plenipotentiary
from the American States. When it receives con-
firmation, I will give it to you.
I shall observe your directions respecting a trans-
ference of the company lately mine to the Continental
Private Correspondence 47
establishment, and in my next shall communicate
the result of my inquiry into the present state of
your cannon. The General is now perfectly recov-
ered, and, added to the pleasure of returning health,
enjoys the solace of his lady's company, who has
lately joined the army.
TO GOUVERNEUR MORRIS, ETC.
Headquarters, Morristown, March 22, 1777.
Gentlemen :
Two days ago I accepted your challenge and met
you for the first time in the epistolary field, since
which I had the pleasure of receiving yours of the
19th instant, and, as far as circumstances will per-
mit, close with your proposal of interchanging blows
twice a week.
The present time is so unfruitful of events that it
affords no intelligence worthy of your notice. As to
transactions of a military nature, I can only say that
the British army continues to decrease by the daily
loss of prisoners and deserters taken at and coming
into the different posts, which is a striking symptom
that the situation of affairs with the enemy is not so
favorable as it might be; for when an army is in
good humor and its affairs prosperous, desertion is a
disease that seldom prevails in it.
From all the accounts they have given us, seconded
by considerations that obviously present themselves,
it is my opinion the enemy will make no grand
movement before the beginning of May, and perhaps
not then. There is no expectation in their army of
48 Alexander Hamilton
their being speedily called to the field, nor the least
disposition of matters that I have heard of for a sud-
den excursion. It will be a long time before the
roads will be fit for the transportation of artillery,
which is an essential instrument in their operations;
and a still longer before the ground will permit of an
encampment consistent with the health and comfort
of the soldiers ; and it would defeat their purpose to
undertake any thing of importance under circum-
stances that would oblige them to divide their army
in order to accommodate it. It seems also to be an
opinion supported by the best reasons, that the
main object with which they will open the campaign
will be the capture of Philadelphia. If so, they will
have a greater probability of success by co-operating
both by sea and land ; and the preparations for this,
added to the dangers of making an attempt by water
at too early a season, will in all likelihood protract the
execution of their project at least till the time I have
mentioned.
I intimated that it might perhaps be later before
they would move. It seems to me a pretty general
idea in their army, that they will wait for reinforce-
ments before they take the field. Should they do
this, I see not from what quarter they can expect any
succors worth mentioning so early as the beginning of
May. But I would lay no great stress upon this.
Notwithstanding the idea is countenanced by their
weakness in numbers, which must make their success
more doubtful and expose them to greater hazards in
whatever they attempt than can be agreeable where
so much is at stake, much will depend, however, upon
Private Correspondence 49
the comparative strength of our army, and the con-
ception they may form of it.
Though I do not doubt your discretion, which
occasioned me so readily to embrace your proposal,
yet such is the delicacy of my situation, that I must
beg leave to repeat what I before observed to you,
that whenever I give opinions they are merely my
own, and will probably, so far from being a transcript
of those of the General, differ widely from them in
many respects. The one I now advance is of this
kind, and is besides improper to be generally circu-
lated; for many people who have the management
of affairs are of so lethargic a complexion that they
are to be kept in action only by the fear of immediate
danger, — and should they get it into their heads that
the enemy would remain idle for six weeks, would
think they had a right to doze away forty days at
least.
In my last I mentioned a rumor concerning Doctor
Franklin ; since that I have seen something said (and
I believe it) to be an extract of a letter from him to
Mr. Bache, of Philadelphia, in which he represents
things to be in an excellent train in France, and uses
this strong emphatical language, that a war between
her and Britain "was as inevitable as death." No
public advices from him that I know of have reached
headquarters.
I spoke to General Knox about your cannon in the
Continental service. He answered that it would be
difficult to ascertain to what particular class the
pieces that had been left belonged, but he considered
the Continent at all times bound to make good the
VOL. IX. — 4.
50 Alexander Hamilton
number borrowed from your State ; and that he had
still your six pieces in his hands. I have always
looked upon the matter in the same light.
TO THE COMMITTEE OF THE NEW YORK CONVENTION
Headquarters, Morristown, April 5, 1777.
Gentlemen:
Since my last I have had the pleasure of receiving
your reply to my two favors of the 29th ultimo and
2d current. I am happy enough to be able to inform
you that my indisposition, which was the occasion of
my brevity when I last wrote, is now removed.
The opinion I advanced respecting the enemy's not
moving before the beginning of May, seems to be
shaken, though not entirely overthrown, by some
present appearances. We have received information
that they are embarking about three thousand men
on board of transports, which are lying at the Hook,
by way of Staten Island. This, it is conjectured, is
with a view to the Delaware; and the supposition
is confirmed by the circumstance of a confederacy
lately detected at Philadelphia, who, among other
things, were endeavoring, by the temptation of fifty
pounds, to engage persons as pilots up that river.
The extreme difficulties they must labor under for
want of forage, and the infinite hazard they must run
by moving with a small body of about five thousand
men, with an enemy in the rear, incapable of sparing
any considerable body of troops to form a post be-
hind, and be an asylum to them in case of accident, —
Private Correspondence 51
these circumstances will hardly allow me to think
they will be daring enough to make an attempt at
this time. But on the other hand, as they know we
are in a progressive state as to numbers, and other
matters of importance, and as they have no prospect
of early reinforcement, and are in a state of uncer-
tainty as to any, from the bustling aspect of Euro-
pean affairs, it is probable they may conceive a
necessity of making a push at all risks. Perhaps,
however, this embarkation is intended for some other
purpose; to make a diversion, or execute some parti-
san exploit elsewhere. On the whole, I find it diffi-
cult to believe they are yet ready for any capital
operation.
As to your apprehensions of an attempt up the
North River, I imagine you may discard any un-
easiness on that score, although it will be at all times
advisable to be on the watch against such a contin-
gency. It is almost reduced to a certainty, that the
principal views of the enemy, in the ensuing cam-
paign, will be directed towards the southward, and
to Philadelphia more immediately ; of which idea, the
discovery before mentioned, with respect to pilots, is
no inconsiderable confirmation. Philadelphia is an
object calculated to strike and attract attention. It
has all along been the main source of supplies towards
the war; and the getting it into their possession
would deprive us of a wheel we could very badly
spare, in the great political and military machine.
They are sensible of this, and are equally sensible,
that it contains, in itself, and is surrounded by, a
prodigious number of persons attached to them, and
52 Alexander Hamilton
inimicable to us, who would lend them all the assist-
ance they could, in the further prosecution of their
designs. It is also a common and well-grounded
rule in war, to strike first and principally, at the
capital towns and cities, in order to the conquest of
a country.
I must confess I do not see any object equally
interesting to draw their efforts to the northward.
Operations merely for plundering and devastation
can never answer their end; and if they could, one
part of the continent would do nearly as well as an-
other. And as to the notion of forming a junction
with the northern army, and cutting off the com-
munication between the Northern and Southern
States, I apprehend it will do better in speculation
than in practice. Unless the geography of the
country is far different from any thing I can conceive,
to effect this would require a chain of posts, and such
a number of men at each as would never be practi-
cable or maintainable, but to an immense army. In
their progress, by hanging upon their rear, and
seizing every opportunity of skirmishing, their situa-
tion might be rendered insupportably uneasy.
But for fear of mistake, the General has determined
to collect a considerable body of troops at or about
Peekskill, which will not be drawn off till the
intentions of the enemy have acquired a decisive
complexion. These will be ready, according to con-
junctures, either to proceed northerly or southerly, as
may be requisite. Every precaution should be taken
to prevent the boats from being destroyed, by col-
lecting them, at the first movement of the enemy,
Private Correspondence 53
under cover of one of the forts, or into some inlet,
difficult of access, and easily defensible with a small
number of men. The loss of them would be an
irreparable disadvantage.
The enemy's attempt upon Peekskill is a demon-
stration of the folly of having any quantity of stores
at places so near the water, and so much exposed to
a sudden inroad. There should never be more there
than sufficient to answer present demands. We have
lost a good deal in this way at different times, and I
hope experience will at last make us wiser.
His Excellency lately had a visit from the Oneida
Chief and five others. He managed them with a
good deal of address, and sent them away perfectly
satisfied. He persuaded them to go to Philadelphia,
but they declined it, alleging their impatience to
return, and remove the erroneous opinions of their
countrymen, from the misrepresentations of British
emissaries, which they were apprehensive might draw
them into some rash proceedings. They parted, after
having made the most solemn protestations of friend-
ship and good will. His Excellency has been very
busy all day in dispatching the southern post, which
has prevented me giving him your resolve. It will,
no doubt, be very acceptable ; and it is with pleasure
I inform you that the zeal and abilities of the New
York Convention hold the first rank in his estimation.
No news from France, save that the Congress have
obtained a credit there, for which they can draw bills
to the amount of ;£ 100,000 sterling. This will be
extremely serviceable in carrying on a trade with the
French. The new troops begin to come in. If we
54 Alexander Hamilton
can shortly get any considerable accession of strength,
we may be able to strike some brilliant stroke.
P. S. — We have been some time endeavoring to
negotiate a regular cartel; but it has been lately
broken off, principally on account of Major-General
Lee. General Howe will not allow him to be compre-
hended under the general idea of American prisoners.
TO GOUVERNEUR MORRIS, ETC.
Headquarters, Morristown, April 12, 1777.
Gentlemen:
I this day have received your favor of the 8th
instant. Hurry of business prevents my entering
into a particular detail of affairs, either with respect
to the enemy or ourselves, though matters remain
much in the same situation as when I last wrote.
The enemy are unquestionably preparing to take the
field as soon as possible, notwithstanding which I
believe it may be full as late as I at first suggested
before they will be perfectly ready for a general
movement. By several persons who have come out
of New York within these few days, it is pretty well
confirmed that they have constructed a bridge to be
laid upon boats, for the purpose, in all probability, of
crossing the Delaware.
The new levies begin to come in from the south-
ward, but not in such large numbers as could be
wished. It is to be hoped, however, that we shall
shortly be sufficiently reinforced to give an effectual
obstruction to their designs. The Congress have
resolved, if the General approves, to form a camp on
Private Correspondence 55
the west side of the Delaware, and have called upon
Pennsylvania to furnish 3,000 militia to join the
same. Every nerve must and will be strained to
prevent Philadelphia falling into the enemy's hands.
It is a place of infinite importance.
It is said there are favorable accounts lately re-
ceived from Doctor Franklin; but we have no au-
thentic advice of the kind, nor does the report extend
to any particulars.
Your sentiments of Major Edmonston's conduct
correspond with the General's ideas of it. He had
given some directions to General Schuyler on the
subject. Besides other purposes it might serve, the
design of his going to Canada was evidently that he
might be a vehicle of instructions to General Carleton.
It would be the most convenient, certain, and expe-
ditious mode they could have fallen upon to convey
them. I communicated the paragraph of your letter
respecting him to his Excellency. He wishes the
major might be sent on directly to Philadelphia. I
fancy he would be glad to be saved the trouble of an
interview with him.
I should be obliged to you to inform the conven-
tion, that it is my opinion the General will not permit
Mr. Leroy to go into New York. It is a determined
point with him to grant no such indulgence when any
matter of the kind is referred to him, unless the per-
son applying can assign the most substantial reasons
for his request, and can also produce explicit creden-
tials of his political principles and conduct being
favorable to the American cause. I conclude from
my being instructed to require his parole, that he
56 Alexander Hamilton
cannot give satisfaction on these points. If, how-
ever, he should obtain permission, I will execute the
resolve transmitted to me. For the future, if the
convention have cogent reasons for allowing any sub-
ject of the State to go in to the enemy, as they are
the best judges of all the circumstances concerning
him, they had better send him in without referring
the matter particularly to the General.
I take the liberty to inclose a letter to the care of
Mr. Jay, the delivery of which to him will be a favor
conferred on, etc.
TO THE COMMITTEE OF THE NEW YORK CONVENTION
Headquarters, Morristown, April 20, 1777.
Gentlemen :
The disposition of the convention, with respect to
the disaffected among you, is highly commendable,
and justified by every principle of equity and policy.
The necessity of exemplary punishment throughout
the States is become evident beyond a doubt, and it
were to be wished every one of the thirteen would
imitate the judicious conduct of New York. Lenity
and forbearance have been tried too long to no pur-
pose: it is high time to discard what the clearest
experience has shown to be ineffectual.
But in dispensing punishment, the utmost care and
caution ought to be used. The power of doing it, or
even of bringing the guilty to trial, should be placed
in hands that know well how to use it. I believe it
would be a prudent rule to meddle with none but
those whose crimes are supported by very sufficient
Private Correspondence 57
evidence, and are of a pretty deep dye. The appre-
hending innocent persons, or those whose offences are
of so slender a nature as to make it prudent to dis-
miss them, furnishes an occasion of triumph, and a
foundation for a species of animadversion which is
very injurious to the public cause. Persons so appre-
hended generally return home worse than they were,
and by expatiating on their sufferings, first excite the
pity towards themselves, and afterwards the abhor-
rence towards their persecutors, of those with whom
they converse. I believe it would also be in general a
good rule either to pardon offenders entirely, or to
inflict capital and severe punishments. The advice
given by a certain general to his son, when the latter
had the Roman army in his power, was certainly very
politic : he advised him either to destroy them utterly
or to dismiss them with every mark of honor and
respect. By the first method, says he, you disable
the Romans from being your enemies; by the last,
you make them your friends. So with respect to the
Tories; I would either disable them from doing us
any injury, or I would endeavor to gain their friend-
ship by clemency. Inflicting trifling punishments
only embitters the minds of those on whom they fall,
and increases their disposition to do mischief without
taking away the power of doing it.
I shall communicate your additional resolve to the
General and consult him on what you mention, and
shall let you know his opinion in my next: mine,
however, is that those who appear to be of such a
character as to be susceptible of reformation, should
be employed ; but it is a delicate point.
58
Alexander Hamilton
As to news, the most material is, that from in-
telligence received from Rhode Island, it appears
the enemy are abandoning it. This is a preparatory-
step to the intended operations of the enemy.
The other day we surprised a lieutenant's guard,
took sixteen prisoners, and killed three or four.
In a private letter from Philadelphia I am informed
that a treaty of a very particular nature is on the
point of being concluded between the Court of
France and the States of America. There is a pro-
spect of opening a trade with Sweden. I hear Mr.
Morris,1 of Philadelphia, has a vessel arrived from
thence.
TO THE COMMITTEE OF THE NEW YORK CONVENTION
Headquarters, Morristown, April 28, 1777.
Gentlemen :
Extreme hurry of business puts it out of my power
to say but very little.
Your information concerning a piece of ordnance
lately constructed at Philadelphia is true. There is
such a piece at headquarters, weighs 227 pounds,
carries a three-pound ball. The iron is wrought,
hooped, and welded together. The General and
others esteem it a great acquisition. It has been
fired twenty times, as fast as possible, and is sup-
posed to be thorough proof. For my part I am
rather dubious of this matter, and have recom-
mended fifty successive discharges instead of twenty.
If she would stand that, her sufficiency would be
1 Robert Morris, the distinguished financier of the revolution.
Private Correspondence 59
ascertained beyond a doubt, and her value would be
immense ; and as it is a new experiment, we cannot
take too much pains to be sure. If Mr. Livingston
can construct pieces of the same kind and weight that
will stand a similar proof, he will render the most
essential service to his country. We cannot have too
respectable an artillery, and he need not doubt they
will be wanted.
As to ships opposite to Fort Washington, the
General first supposed they might be intended to
make a descent on the Jersey side and come by sur-
prise on our left flank ; but he now considers it wholly
as an amusement, while they were executing their
attempt on the stores at Danbury. Of this affair
you are probably as well advised as we are.
I thank you for your promise of sending me the
model of your government as soon as published. I
have sanguine expectations concerning it.
Nothing new at headquarters but the attempt
against Danbury. If the enemy do not * * * * J
till they get reinforced or receive further orders.
Troops coming on from the southward. We are
told two thousand Carolinians, far on their way to
Philadelphia — a part arrived.
TO WILLIAM LIVINGSTON 2
April, 1777.
A number of disaffected persons having been taken
up and brought to his Excellency, he has ordered an
1 Not legible in the manuscript.
2 The distinguished revolutionary Governor of New Jersey.
60 Alexander Hamilton
examination into their cases to know who of them
were subject to a military jurisdiction, and who came
properly under the cognizance of the civil power;
also to discriminate those who were innocent or
guilty of trivial offences from those whose crimes
were of a more capital and heinous nature, directing
that those of the former character should be dis-
missed, and those of the latter be referred to you for
further trial and punishment. The examination, at
which I was present, has been accordingly made, and
the enclosed list of names will inform you of those
who have been deemed proper subjects for a legal
prosecution ; and who are herewith sent under guard
to be disposed of as you shall direct. I have trans-
mitted you a bundle of papers, in which you will
find the information and evidence that support the
charges against them, and the confession they made
in the court of inquiry. Many of them have nothing
against them but what is to be found in their own
acknowledgments. How far these may operate in
fixing their guilt you can best determine. Several
of them have been taken in arms, and others were
beyond a doubt employed in enlisting men for the
service of the enemy. You will readily concur with
his Excellency in the obvious necessity of inflicting
exemplary punishment on such daring offenders, to
repress that insolent spirit of open and avowed
enmity to the American cause, which, unhappily, is
too prevalent in this and some of the States. The
examination, in this instance, is somewhat irregular
and out of the common order of things. But in the
present unsettled state of government, the distinc-
Private Correspondence 61
tion between the civil and military powers cannot be
upheld with that exactness which every friend to
society must wish. His Excellency desires to avoid
nothing more, I flatter myself you will believe me,
than deviations from the strict rules of propriety in
this respect, or the least encroachments either upon
the rights of the citizens or of the magistrate. It
was necessary to make inquiry for the sake of the
discrimination before mentioned, and tenderness to
the innocent, to save them from long and unmerited
confinement, commended the measure.1
TO WILLIAM LIVINGSTON
Headquarters, Morristown, April 29, 1777.
Sir:
The inclosed was intended to be sent with the
prisoners mentioned in the list ; but before this could
be conveniently done, Mr. Sims, one of the Chief-
Justices of the State, came to this town, and informed
me, that the Governor and Council were upon the
point of adjourning; and that the sending of the
prisoners to them would only be an embarrassment,
without answering, at present, any valuable purpose.
He considered himself authorized to take the matter
under his direction, and desired a sight of the papers
relating to it. After perusing them, he determined
it was best the prisoners should remain here, until he
should receive your further orders on the subject;
and delivered me a letter for you, containing a repre-
sentation of their cases, as they appear to him, in
1 Reprinted from Hamilton's History of the Republic, i., 194.
62 Alexander Hamilton
order to know your sense, in what manner they shall
be disposed of.
He admits two of them, Woolverton and Silas
Howel, to bail.
In addition to the former, I send you a second list
of four others that have been lately committed to
jail. These are high offenders, and among the num-
ber of those who it were to be wished could have an
immediate trial and punishment. Isaac Ogden, in
particular, is one of the most barefaced, impudent
fellows that ever came under my observation. He
openly acknowledged himself a subject of the king of
Great Britain; and flatly refused to give any satis-
faction to some questions that were put to him re-
specting one Moses Nichols, an emissary from the
enemy; assigning no other reason for his refusal,
than that he had given his word to be silent.
A spirit of disaffection shows itself with so much
boldness and violence in different parts of this State,
that it is the ardent wish of his Excellency, that no
delay, which can be avoided, might be used in making
examples of some of the most atrocious offenders.
If something be not speedily done, to strike a terror
into the disaffected, the consequences must be very
disagreeable.
Among others, all security to the friends of the
American cause will be destroyed; and the natural
effect of this, will be an extinction of zeal in seconding
and promoting it. Their attachment, if it remain, will
be a dead, inactive, useless principle. And the disaf-
fected, emboldened by impunity, will be encouraged to
proceed to the most dangerous and pernicious lengths.
Private Correspondence 63
TO WILLIAM DUER.1
Headquarters, Morristown, 6th May, 1777.
Sir:
The bearer of this is Mr. Malmedi,2 a French gentle-
man of learning, abilities, and experience. I believe
he thinks himself entitled to preferment, and comes
to Congress for that purpose. At the recommenda-
tion of General Lee, he was made Brigadier-General
by the State of Rhode Island, and rilled the station to
the satisfaction of his employers, as appears by a
letter from Governor Cook,3 speaking of him in the
highest terms of approbation. This has led him to
hope that he should be adopted by the Continent on
an equal footing. But in this he will no doubt be
mistaken, as there are many insuperable objections
to such an event. Among others, it would tend to
raise the expectations of the Frenchmen in general,
already too high, to a pitch, which it would be im-
possible to gratify or endure. It might not however,
be amiss to do whatever propriety would warrant to
keep him in good humor, as he is a man of sense and
1 Col. Wm. Duer, born in England in 1747, served with Lord Clive in
India, and came to New York in 1768. He warmly espoused the
patriot side, married Catherine Alexander, daughter of William Alex-
ander, commonly known as Lord Stirling, and was a life-long friend of
Hamilton, who stood by him and helped him in the business mis-
fortunes which befell him, and which cost Hamilton deep anxiety.
Col. Duer figures often in this correspondence. He was at this time on
the New York Committee of Safety, and was soon after chosen to
Congress.
2 Mr. Malmedi was appointed Colonel on the Continental establish-
ment. He thought the rank below his deserts, and was one of the
many French officers who harassed Washington on this score. See
Writings of Washington, iv., 419.
3 Nicholas Cook, Governor of Rhode Island from 1775 to 1778.
64 Alexander Hamilton
merit. I think policy would justify the advancing
him a step higher than his former Continental rank.
Congress in the beginning went upon a very in-
judicious plan with respect to Frenchmen. To every
adventurer that came, without even the shadow of
credentials, they gave the rank of field officers. This
circumstance, seconding the aspiring disposition
natural to those people, carried the expectations of
those who had really any pretensions to the character
of officers to a length that exceeds all the bounds of
moderation. As it was impossible to pursue this
impolitic plan, the Congress have begun to retrench
their excessive liberality; and the consequence has
been universal disgust and discontent.
It would, perhaps, be injurious, as the French are
much addicted to national punctilio, to run into the
opposite extreme to that first embraced, and by that
means create a general clamor and dissatisfaction.
Policy suggests the propriety of discriminating a few
of the most deserving, and endeavoring to keep them
in temper, even by gratifying them beyond what they
can reasonably pretend to. This will enable us to
shake off the despicable part with safety, and to turn
a deaf ear to the exorbitant demands of the many.
It will be easily believed in France that their want
of merit occasioned their want of success, from the
extraordinary marks of favor that have been con-
ferred on others; whereas, the united voice of com-
plaint from the whole, might make ill impressions in
their own country, which it is not our interest should
exist.
We are already greatly embarrassed with the
Private Correspondence 65
Frenchmen among us, and, from the genius of the
people, shall continue to be so. It were to be wished
that our agents in France, instead of courting them
to come out, were instructed to give no encourage-
ment but where they could not help it ; that is, where
applications were made to them by persons, counten-
anced and supported by great men, whom it would
be impolitic to disoblige. Be assured, sir, we shall
never be able to satisfy them ; and they can be of no
use to us, at least for some time. Their ignorance of
our language, of the disposition of the people, the
resources and deficiencies of the country — their own
habits and tempers; all these are disqualifications
that put it out of their power to be of any real use
or service to us. You will consider what I have said
entirely as my own sentiments.
TO GOUVERNEUR MORRIS
Headquarters, Morristown, May 7, 1777.
I thank you for the favor of the pamphlet I con-
taining your form of government, which, without
flattery, T consider as more judicious and digested
than any thing of the kind that has yet appeared
among us; though I am not so unreserved in my
approbation as to think it free from defects. While
I view it in the main as a wise and excellent system,
I freely confess it appears to me to have some faults
1 The Constitution of New York was at this time under consideration,
and Morris was on the committee engaged in making a draft, and had
made some very able speeches on the subject in the Provincial Conven-
tion or Congress.
VOL. IX.— 5.
66 Alexander Hamilton
which I could wish did not exist. Were it not too
late to discuss particulars for any useful end, or could
my judgment have any weight in a matter which is
the work of so many far more able and discerning
than I can pretend to be, I should willingly descend
to an exhibition of those parts I dislike and my
reasons for disapproving. But, in the present
situation of things, it would be both useless and
presumptuous.
I congratulate you on the late important arrivals
to the eastward. We consider them as immense
acquisitions. Did I not suppose you must be pos-
sessed of the same particulars we have at head-
quarters, I would transmit those we have to you. I
congratulate you also on the Danbury expedition.
The stores destroyed there have been purchased at a
pretty high price to the enemy. The spirit of the
people on the occasion does them great honor — is a
pleasing proof that they have lost nothing of that
primitive zeal with which they began the contest,
and will be a galling discouragement to the enemy
from repeating attempts of the kind. Such an oppo-
sition, under such circumstances, was not to be
expected. By every account, both from our friends
and from themselves, they cannot have sustained a
loss of less than five hundred killed, wounded, and
taken. An honest, intelligent lad, a prisoner with
them, who made his escape two or three days ago,
informs us that he saw three vessels loaded with
wounded. He was permitted to look into the hold
of two of them, and affirms there could not be fewer
than forty in each. He attempted to inspect the
Private Correspondence 67
contents of the third, but was hindered by the sen-
tries. He also informs us that there were loud wail-
ings and lamentations among the soldiers' women on
the occasion, and that the people of New York con-
sidered the affair in the light of a defeat to the British
troops.
From some late appearances, my opinion is greatly
shaken as to the enemy's intention to move against
Philadelphia. I begin to fear they will disappoint us
with a contrary movement. The General is aware of
this possibility, and will do every thing he can to
provide for the event: and I trust the convention
of your State will co-operate with him by every
exertion in their power. By intelligence received
yesterday and to-day from Generals Putnam and
Lincoln at the outposts, we have reason to suspect
the enemy will soon evacuate Brunswick and push
for Amboy, whence they will no doubt embark for
some expedition by water. This may be either to
Philadelphia or up the North River; or, perhaps, the
appearances that indicate this may be only feints
to perplex and deceive us. The testimony of every
person that comes from them confirms this fact, that
their horses are in such miserable condition as to
render them incapable of any material operations by
land. If, therefore, proper care be taken wherever
they shall point their efforts to prevent their collect-
ing supplies of good horses among ourselves, I know
not how it will be possible for them to penetrate any
distance into the country. As far as it may depend
upon them, I hope the convention will attend to this
circumstance, and will take effectual measures to
68 Alexander Hamilton
put it out of their power to gain such supplies in any
part of your State towards which they may direct
their movements. Nothing particular from Europe.
Doctor Lee,1 indeed, writes that, from the face of
affairs there, a war cannot be postponed longer than
three months. He thinks, however, the English will
be able to get a reinforcement this year of 8,000 or
10,000 Germans. If I mistake not, he says they have
already engaged them and sent transports to take
them in.
TO GOUVERNEUR MORRIS
Headquarters, Morristown, May 12, 1777.
Dear Sir:
I have received the pleasure of your favor of
yesterday's date. The reasons you assign for the
interval of silence on your part are admitted as
sufficient, though I regret that the principal one
exists — the combination of the Tories for a general
insurrection. But, perhaps, on the scale of policy, I
ought rather to congratulate you on the event. That
there are too many Tories in your State, as well as
in several others, is a fact too well known. That
they should confederate themselves for active pur-
poses of revolt and disaffection, when once dis-
covered, is desirable, because it arms the vindictive
justice of the State, and will justify, in the eyes of
all the world, a radical blow at the faction. Were it
not that we have seen so many similar instances, that
1 Arthur Lee, of Virginia, brother of Richard Henry Lee, at this time
one of our agents in Europe.
Private Correspondence 69
only prove the temerity and folly of the Tories, I
should consider this as a presumptive argument, that
the enemy intend your way.
It seems now fully the opinion of our generals, that
the last year's project for uniting the two armies, by
the conquest of your State, will be prosecuted this
campaign. To confirm this supposition, all the later
intelligence we have received from the enemy strongly
indicates an intention to evacuate the Jerseys; and
't is thought there will be very great obstacles to an
attempt on Philadelphia, by way of the Delaware;
'tis concluded that the North River must be the
object. And, upon this principle, Generals Greene
and Knox, in whom his Excellency has great con-
fidence, are sent to examine the situation of things
with you, and in concert with General McDougal,
who is in equal estimation, to adopt every proper
expedient for putting you in the best state of defence.
They set out this day.
If the enemy do not, in fact, aim at Philadelphia,
they have been very artful in throwing out appear-
ances well calculated to deceive ; and which, though
they have not had so full an effect as at any time to
cause our cautious General to lose sight of the other
object which 't is now imagined they propose to
themselves, yet they have so far deceived as to beget
pretty universally the opinion they wished to impose.
But, for my own part, though I am staggered in my
conjectures, yet I by no means give up my first sup-
position. I think it very probable they are only
evacuating the Jerseys to be out of danger of an
attack from us, which they have reason to fear from
70 Alexander Hamilton
the increasing strength of our army, and mean to
encamp on Staten Island till reinforced. It would
be madness in them, weak as they are in numbers, to
risk all in any capital attempt, and I am confident
they will not do it unless they have a desperate game
* to play, and have no expectation of reinforcements.
Such a conduct would be contrary to every principle
of war or policy. Howe cannot take the field with
more than eight thousand men ; let him go where he
will, the probability of defeat will be strong, and the
consequences of it would be absolutely fatal. How
can he hope to penetrate far with so small a force,
and with such a miserable supply of horses to convey
his artillery and baggage ? It seems to me, too, with
respect to the supposed design upon your State, if it
really existed, they would have taken care to have
seized your forts, and other important posts, when
they might have been apprised you were in no con-
dition to defend them.
We have lately had one or two little skirmishes
here. A party from Boundbrook beat up some of the
enemy's advanced pickets from Brunswick. An at-
tack was made upon their pickets near Bonhamtown.
We have no regular account of this matter ; but what
, we have had is to this purport : " That a party under
Col. Cook attacked one of their pickets and drove it
. in ; that it was reinforced and sallied out again, and
was beaten in a second time; that it received a
second reinforcement and made a second sally; and
that Gen. Maxwell, who conducted the affair, per-
ceiving the matter growing too serious by continual
succors coming to them from Brunswick and Amboy,
Private Correspondence 71
thought it best to retire which he did in good order —
the enemy keeping at a respectful distance during
the whole time of the retrogradation." T is said
we have lost between twenty and thirty killed and
wounded, and a few stragglers taken ; and 't is also
asserted that some of our officers counted nineteen
dead bodies of the enemy on the field. The Royal
Highlanders had taken possession of a wood, by way
of ambuscade, out of which they were expelled by
our troops. Here, I believe, the principal loss was
sustained on both sides.
P. S. — I thank you for the inclosures of every kind.
I believe you have not received a letter I wrote a few
days ago, giving my idea of your Constitution, with
which, on a second inspection, I am better pleased
than at first. You will oblige me by forwarding the
inclosed.
TO GOUVERNEUR MORRIS
Headquarters, Morristown, May 19, 1777.
Dear Sir:
I this moment received the favor of your letter of
the 1 6th instant.
I partly agree and partly disagree with you re-
specting the deficiencies of your Constitution. That
there is a want of vigor in the executive, I believe,
will be found true. To determine the qualifications
proper for the chief executive magistrate requires the
deliberate wisdom of a select assembly, and cannot
be safely lodged with the people at large. That in-
stability is inherent in the nature of popular govern-
72 Alexander Hamilton
ments I think very disputable ; unstable democracy,
is an epithet frequently in the mouths of politicians ;
but I believe that from a strict examination of the
matter — from the records of history, it will be found
that the fluctuations of governments in which the
popular principle has borne a considerable sway, have
proceeded from its being compounded with other
principles; — and from its being made to operate
in an improper channel. Compound governments,
though they may be harmonious in the beginning,
will introduce distinct interests, and these interests
will clash, throw the State into convulsions, and pro-
duce a change or dissolution. When the deliberative
or judicial powers are vested wholly or partly in the
collective body of the people, you must expect error,
confusion, and instability. But a representative
democracy, where the right of election is well se-
cured and regulated, and the exercise of the legisla-
tive, executive, and judiciary authorities is vested in
select persons, chosen really and not nominally by
the people, will, in my opinion, be most likely to be
happy, regular, and durable. That the complexity
of your Legislature will occasion delay and dilatori-
ness, is evident, and I fear may be attended with a
much greater evil; — as expedition is not very ma-
terial in making laws, especially when the govern-
ment is well digested and matured by time. The
evil I mean is, that in time your Senate, from the
very name, and from the mere circumstance of its
being a separate member of the Legislature, will be
liable to degenerate into a body purely aristocratical.
And I think the danger of an abuse of power from
Private Correspondence 73
a simple legislature, would not be very great in a
government where the equality and fulness of popu-
lar representation is so wisely provided for as in
yours. On the whole, though I think there are the
defects intimated, I think your government far the
best that we have yet seen, and capable of giving
long and substantial happiness to the people. Ob-
jections to it should be suggested with great caution
and reserve.
Nothing particular in the military line. The
enemy still in the Jerseys, though they have been
some time sending away their stores, baggage, etc.,
and are raising new works of defence. All this may
be preparatory to an evacuation at all events, and
they may be only intended to pave the way for a
retreat, in case of an attack or any accident.
Advices from the West Indies, that have an ap-
pearance of authenticity, mention a French vessel
bound for the continent, being taken by the British
frigate Perseus, and carried into Dominique; and a
remonstrance being made by the Governor of Martin-
ique, threatening reprisals in case of a detention.
Nay, some accounts say he has actually seized all the
English vessels in the harbor of Martinique, and im-
prisoned their seamen till restitution shall be made.
If these accounts be true, they are important, and may
be considered as an earnest of more general hostility.
Perhaps your next favor will find me at Bound-
brook. Headquarters will soon be moved there.
Our family seem desirous of cultivating a closer
acquaintance with the enemy than we have had the
pleasure of for some time past.
74 Alexander Hamilton
Relying on your punctuality in favoring me with
any important intelligence your way, I am likely to
lose a beaver hat, which was staked against the truth
of the report of the stores at St. John's being de-
stroyed. If you forget me in future, I will certainly
excommunicate you.
TO GOUVERNEUR MORRIS
Middle Brook Camp, June 2, 1777.
Dear Sir:
I received your favor per express, and as the
absence of my former respectable correspondents has
made a change necessary, I am happy that you have
been substituted in their room.
Except a body of militia at and about Pompton,
and a few detachments of observation, our whole
army is now collected at two points ; the main body
here, and a division under General Sullivan at Prince-
ton. Though this alteration of circumstances takes
off in a great measure the restraints imposed upon the
enemy during the winter, gives them a more ample
field to range in, and exposes the country more to
their ravages, yet the measure is abundantly justified
by every wise military maxim. The rigor of the
season has been heretofore our chief security against
those advantages which might have been taken of our
dispersed state; and this dispersion was necessary
both for the conveniency of winter-quarters, and
with a view to confine and distress the enemy, which
was the most capital object we could then propose to
ourselves. It was also necessary by this method to
Private Correspondence 75
second the check to that torrent of influence which
their successes in the Jerseys had given them. Many
other justifying reasons might be assigned, which I
doubt not you will easily conceive, and which it
would be indiscreet to commit to paper.
But now that a more active season is arrived, and
something of importance must be done on one side
or the other, it becomes our business to put ourselves
in the best posture both for defence and offence.
Common-sense dictates that the best way to effect
this is to collect our strength. In a collected state
we can best repel a general attack ; we can best make
one, if circumstances warrant it; and we can move
with greater expedition to disconcert any sudden
push not immediately upon us, which the enemy
are likely to make. It is needless to enlarge on a
subject which your own judgment will enable you
of itself to view in a just light.
As to the designs of the enemy, appearances are
so intricate, fluctuating, and seemingly inconsistent,
that it is difficult to form any certain conclusion from
them. Either they do not understand themselves,
and are very irresolute and fickle, or they very art-
fully manage matters to deceive us. I am rather
inclined to suppose the former. This, however, I
may say with tolerable certainty, that my ideas of
their intending to operate to the southward, derive
just support from such parts of their conduct lately
as are most intelligible. We have a variety of con-
curring intelligence that they have lately drawn
more troops into the Jerseys — that they have
brought over a large number of wagons, and all the
76 Alexander Hamilton
boats prepared for bridges, with several other par-
ticulars of less importance, all of which denote a
preparation to operate this way. Persons who have
been among them assert confidently that they mean
to attack us. But we are divided in sentiment as to
the probability of that, or of their making a forced
march to Philadelphia. If they act wisely, they will
neither attack us in our present situation, strongly
posted as we are, nor will they attempt to cross a
river, where they may certainly expect opposition in
front, and leaving at the same time a formidable
army in the rear. He should endeavor to draw us
from here and fight us upon more equal ground. But
after all, if he expects any timely reinforcements,
upon what rational principle can he risk his own
reputation and all the hopes of his cause, in an at-
tempt with his present force, so extremely important
and hazardous ? Perhaps he only means to get every
thing in readiness against the arrival of the reinforce-
ments looked for, that he may immediately com-
mence his operations. Things, however, will hardly
bear this construction. We are told that in seven-
teen sail lately arrived from Europe, there were about
2,000 raw recruits.
This from the deserters.
The enemy yesterday perpetrated a most barbarous
butchery upon a Lieutenant Martin of ours. He was
out with a scouting party and met some of the British
light-horse; his men, it is said quitted him. But
however other matters may be, 't is certain his dead
body was found most horribly mangled. He had not
a single bullet wound, but was hacked to pieces with
Private Correspondence 77
the sword; he had several cuts on his head, each of
which was sufficient to dispatch him, besides a num-
ber of more inconsiderable scars about his body and
hands. It is evident that the most wanton and un-
necessary cruelty must have been used towards him ;
for the greater part of his wounds must have been
given him when utterly out of a condition to resist.
This may be relied on as a fact, for I saw his corpse,
as did also every officer and soldier in camp that
chose it. The General sent him down to their lines
with a letter to Lord Cornwallis, as an undeniable
evidence of their brutality ; but the letter was taken
from the flag and sent in ; the flag and the body not
permitted to pass their outposts.
TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON z
Headquarters, Camp at Middle Brook, June 28, 1777.
Dear Sir:
Yours of the 25th came to hand last night. Since
my last addressed to Mr. Morris, the enemy have been
trying a second experiment to tempt us to an engage-
ment, on equal terms of ground. Under the sup-
position of their intending to evacuate the Jerseys
immediately, in order to keep up the idea of a pursuit,
and to be in a posture to take advantage of any
critical movement that might present itself, to give
1 A leading patriot and a member of the well-known New York
family. He was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, for many-
years Chancellor of New York, and Minister to France from 1801 to
1804. At this time he was a member of the New York Constitutional
Convention.
78 Alexander Hamilton
them a blow ; the chief part of our army, after their
retreat from Brunswick, was marched down to
Quibbletown, and parties detached thence further
towards the enemy. Finding this disposition take
place, and expecting that, elated by what had passed,
we might be willing to venture upon a general en-
gagement, which is Howe's only hope, he came out
with his whole army from Amboy, only on Thursday
morning, and made a forced march towards our left,
with design, if possible, to cut off some of our detach-
ments, particularly one under Lord Stirling; and,
probably, if we were not expeditious in regaining the
heights, to get there before us, by rapidly entering
the passes on our left. Lord Stirling's party was
near being surrounded; but after a smart skirmish
with the enemy's main body, made their retreat good
to Westfield, and ascended the pass of the mountains
back of the Scotch plains. The other parties, after
skirmishing on their flanks, came off to join the main
body, and take possession of the heights. The
enemy continued their march towards our left as far
as Westfield, and there halted. In the meantime, it
was judged prudent to return with the army to the
mountains, lest it should be their intention to get
into them, and force us to fight them on their own
terms. They remained at Westfield till the next day,
and perceiving their views disappointed, have again
returned to Amboy, plundering and burning as usual.
We had parties hanging about them on their re-
turn; but they were so much on their guard, no
favourable opportunity could be found of giving them
any material annoyance. Their loss we cannot ascer-
Private Correspondence 79
tain; and our own, in men, is inconsiderable, though
we have as yet received no returns of the missing. I
have no doubt they have lost more men than we ; but
unfortunately, I won't say from what cause, they got
three field-pieces from us, which will give them room
for vaporing, and embellish their excursion, in the
eyes of those who make every trifle a matter of im-
portance. It is not unlikely they will soon be out of
the Jerseys; but where they will go to next is mere
matter of conjecture, for, as you observe, their con-
duct is so eccentric as to leave no certain grounds on
which to form a judgment of their intentions.
I know the comments that some people will make
on our Fabian conduct. It will be imputed either to
cowardice, or to weakness. But the more discerning,
I trust, will not find it difficult to conceive, that it
proceeds from the truest policy, and is an argument
neither of the one nor the other.
The liberties of America are an infinite stake. We
should not play a desperate game for it, or put it
upon the issue of a single cast of the die. The loss
of one general engagement may effectually ruin us,
and it would certainly be folly to hazard it, unless
our resources for keeping up an army were at an end,
and some decisive blow was absolutely necessary;
or unless our strength was so great as to give cer-
tainty of success. Neither is the case — America can
in all probability maintain its army for years, and our
numbers, though such as would give a reasonable
hope of success, are not such as should make us
entirely sanguine. A third consideration, did it
exist, might make it expedient to risk such an event
80 Alexander Hamilton
— the prospect of very great reinforcements to the
enemy; but every appearance contradicts this, and
affords all reason to believe they will get very incon-
siderable accessions of strength this campaign. All
the European maritime powers are interested for the
defeat of the British arms in America, and will never
assist them. A small part of Germany is disposed to
make a market of its troops, and even this seems not
over-fond of being drained any further. Many
springs may be put in motion even to put a stop to
this. The king of Prussia may, perhaps, without
much difficulty, be engaged to espouse views un-
friendly to the court of Britain, and a nod of his
would be sufficient to prevent all future German suc-
cors. He, as well as most other powers of Europe,
feels the necessity of commerce and a large maritime
force to be generally respectable. His situation,
until lately, has been unfavorable to this; but the
reduction of Poland, and the acquisition of Dantzig
in the Baltic, have put it very much in his power to
pursue commercial schemes ; and may tempt him to
be propitious to American independence. Russian
assistance is still infinitely more precarious; for be-
sides that it cannot be the true interest of that am-
bitious empire to put its troops to sale, it is at
present embroiled with the Turks, and will want all
its men to employ in its own wars. England herself,
from the nature of her policy, can furnish few soldiers,
and even those few can ill be spared to come to
America in the present hostile appearance of affairs
in Europe. On whatever side it is considered, no
great reinforcements are to be expected to the
Private Correspondence 81
British army in America. It is therefore Howe's
business to make the most of his present strength;
and as he is not numerous enough to conquer and
garrison as he goes, his only hope lies in fighting us,
and giving a general defeat at one blow.1
On our part we are continually strengthening our
political springs in Europe, and may every day look
for more effectual aids than we have yet received.
Our own army is continually growing stronger in
men, arms, and discipline: we shall soon have an
important addition of artillery, now on its way to
join us. We can maintain our present numbers good,
at least, by enlistments, while the enemy must
dwindle away; and at the end of the summer the
disparity between us will be infinitely great, and
facilitate any exertions that may be made to settle
the business with them. Their affairs will be grow-
ing worse, ours better; so that delay will ruin them.
It will serve to perplex and fret them, and precipitate
them into measures that we can turn to good account.
Our business then is to avoid a general engagement,
and to waste the enemy away by constantly goading
their sides in a desultory, teasing way.
In the meantime it is painful to leave a part of the
inhabitants a prey to their depredations; and it is
wounding to the feelings of a soldier, to see an
enemy parading before him and daring him to fight
which he is obliged to decline.
But a part must be sacrificed to the whole, and
passion must give way to reason. You will be sensible
1 For a youth of twenty this is a rather remarkable analysis of the
condition of Europe.
VOL. IX.— 6.
82 Alexander Hamilton
that it will not be advisable to publish the senti-
ments contained in this letter as coming from me;
because this will make the enemy more fully ac-
quainted with our views; but it might not be amiss
to have them circulated, as those which ought to
govern the conduct of the army, in order to prepare
the minds of the people for what may happen, and
take off the disagreeable impressions our caution
may make.
TO DR. HUGH KNOX "
July, 1777.
* * * This event (the evacuation of Ticon-
deroga 2) redounds very little to our credit. For if
the post was untenable, or required a larger number
of troops to defend it than could be spared for the
purpose, it ought long ago to have been foreseen and
given up. Instead of that, we have kept a large
quantity of cannon in it, and have been heaping
up very valuable magazines of stores and provisions
that, in the critical moment of defence, are aban-
doned and lost. This affair will be attended with
several evil consequences ; for besides the loss of our
stores, which we cannot well afford, it opens a new
and easy door by which to penetrate the northern
States. It will fix the hitherto fluctuating disposi-
tion of the Indians in that quarter in their favor, and
expose the frontiers of the adjacent country to their
1 Dr. Hugh Knox, a worthy minister in the West Indies, who had
advised and helped Hamilton in his boyhood, and always remained his
warm admirer.
2 July 5> 1777-
Private Correspondence 83
depredations. But though it is a misfortune we have
reason to lament, I dare say it will be regarded with
you as much more important than it really is, and
as materially endangering the success of our cause,
which is by no means the case. Our opposition is
at this time too well matured and has too great
stability to be shaken by an accident of that kind.
While we have a respectable army in the field, and
resources to feed, clothe, and arm them, we are safe.
We have had a force sufficient for the foregoing part
of the campaign to maintain such a superiority over
the main army of the enemy as effectually to hinder
them from attaining any of their purposes. And, to
the northward, with the reinforcements sent up to
succor the retreating garrison of Ticonderoga and the
militia flocking in from New England, I think there
is little doubt we have by this time a force adequate
to give Mr. Burgoyne a seasonable check. One good
effect will result from the misfortune, which is, that
it will stimulate the eastern States to greater exer-
tions than they might otherwise make.
By our last advices the enemy were in possession of
all the country between Ticonderoga and Fort George ;
and our army, nearly equal in number to them, were
about to take post somewhere between Fort Edward
and Saratoga.
The consequences of this northern affair will depend
much upon the part that Howe acts. If he were to
co-operate with Burgoyne it would demand our ut-
most efforts to counteract them. But if he should
go towards the southward, all or most of the advan-
tages of Burgoyne 's success will be lost. He will
84 Alexander Hamilton
either be obliged to content himself with the posses-
sion of Ticonderoga and the dependent fortresses, and
with carrying on a partisan war the rest of the cam-
paign, or he must precipitate himself into certain
ruin by attempting to advance into the country with
a very incompetent force.
Appearances lead us to suppose that Howe is fool
enough to meditate a southern expedition ; for he has
now altered his station at Staten Island, mentioned
above, and has fallen down to the Hook. Judging it
morally certain that there would be a co-operation
of the two armies, we thought it expedient to march
northerly ; and had accordingly reached within four-
teen miles of New Windsor, the place where we could
cross the North River without danger or interruption.
But this new movement of the enemy's fleet, has in-
duced us to return a few miles, and make a disposition
for marching southerly. We shall, however, be cau-
tious how we proceed on that course, lest nothing
more than a feint is intended, to divert us from the
real object.
If they go to the southward in earnest, they must
have the capture of Philadelphia in view; for there
is no other inducement. We shall endeavor to get
there in time to oppose them ; and shall have the
principal part of the Continental force, and a large
body of spirited militia, many of them, from their
services during the last campaign, pretty well inured
to arms, to make the opposition with. Yet I would
not have you to be much surprised if Philadelphia
should fall; for the enemy will doubtless go there
with a determination to succeed at all hazard; and
Private Correspondence 85
we shall not be able to prevent them, without risking
a general action, the expediency of which will de-
pend upon circumstances. If the militia turn out
with that zeal we have a right to expect, from their
conduct when the enemy made their last experiment
in the Jerseys, and were supposed to be going to
Philadelphia, we may do it without much incon-
venience. If they fall materially short of it, we
shall be obliged to confine ourselves to a skirmishing
opposition, which we cannot expect will be effectual.
It may be asked, If, to avoid a general engagement,
we give up objects of the first importance, what is
to hinder the enemy from carrying every important
point, and ruining us? My answer is, that our
hopes are not placed in any particular city or spot of
ground, but in the preserving a good army, furnished
with proper necessaries, to take advantage of favora-
ble opportunities, and waste and defeat the enemy
by piecemeal. Every new post they take, requires
a new division of their forces, and enables us to
strike with our united force against a part of theirs :
and such is their present situation, that another
Trenton affair will amount to a complete victory on
our part ; for they are at too low an ebb to bear an-
other stroke of the kind. Perhaps, before I may
have an opportunity of sending this, facts will un-
fold what I am now endeavoring to anticipate by
conjecture.
You will expect some animadversions on the tem-
per and views of the French nation. I presume you
are nearly as well acquainted with the assistance
they are giving us as I am, both by their intrigues in
86 Alexander Hamilton
foreign courts, and by supplies of every kind of war-
like stores and apparatus.
It does not admit of a doubt that they are inter-
ested to wish us success; and their conduct plainly
shows, they are willing to give us every aid essential
to our preservation. But it is natural they should
desire to do it with as much convenience to them-
selves as they can. I apprehend they are not over-
fond of plunging themselves into a war with England
if they can avoid it, and still answer the end they
have to pursue: and, indeed, from the evident re-
luctance shown on the part of the latter, to do any
thing that may bring about such an event, it be-
comes extremely difficult to draw her into it. The
conclusion we may make, is, that France will not
wish to force England into a war, unless she finds
our affairs require it absolutely; and England will
not enter into one, till she is compelled to do it.
My best respects to all friends ; and I beg you will
believe me to be, with unabated regard, etc.
TO GOUVERNEUR MORRIS
Headquarters, Morristown, July 6, 1777.
Dear Sir:
I received your favour of the 4th, by express. If
I recollect how far my last went, it did not announce
the return of the enemy from Westfield to Amboy,
nor their evacuation of that place since. After rest-
and refreshing themselves a night, they decamped
the following day, and proceeded to Amboy, from
Private Correspondence 87
which place they went to Staten Island as expedi-
tiously as they could; where they still remain.
The news from the northward wore so serious a
face, that our generals thought the enemy were
about to operate in earnest against our posts in that
quarter; and, as supposing this the case, General
Howe might certainly be expected to co-operate by
way of the North River, it was judged necessary to
move the main body of the army from Middle Brook
to Morristown ; to advance a division under General
Sullivan to Pompton, and another under General
Parsons as far as Peekskill. A brigade at that port,
under General Nixon, was ordered, as soon as Par-
sons' division arrived near its destination, to proceed
immediately as a reinforcement to the northern
army. This disposition is deemed advantageous to
prevent the success of a coup de main on the High-
land passes, and not inconsistent with a proper at-
tention to Philadelphia, should the northern alarm
prove nothing more than a diversion, and Howe re-
turn to the charge that way.
I am loath to risk a conjecture about Mr. Howe.
He is such an unintelligible gentleman, that no rule
of interpretation can possibly be found out by which
to unravel his designs. If he acted like a man of
sense, he would wait quietly on Staten Island, and
there concentrate all his forces. He would draw
around him all the men that could be spared from
Canada, and all that are now at Rhode Island. With
these, and the reinforcements he may receive from
Europe, he would make a point of forcing us, by
some means or other to an action. In this his only
88 Alexander Hamilton
hope lies. If he could defeat our army and improve
the moment of success, he would go very near effect-
ing his purpose ; but, let him go to the northward or to
the southward, every new post he takes weakens his
main body and makes it the more liable to be ruined
by our collective strength. Any object short of our
army is a bad one, and that plan is the worst, where,
by a division of his forces, he runs the hazard, in case
of an accident either way, of having his whole scheme
overturned.
We have different accounts of the present situation
of his army. Some tell us that the whole is now en-
camped on Staten Island; others, that the greater
part of the Hessians are on board the ships. By
some sailors who came from them yesterday, we are
told that the ships are taking in water and provisions
for two months, and that conveniences for transport-
ing horses are fitting up in them. All this is rather
vague, and may or may not be true.
Their nourishes in the Jerseys, I believe, cannot
have cost them less than six or seven hundred men.
We have not lost above a hundred. This is the best
way to ruin them without risking any thing.
Our present situation is embarrassing. Their
ships give them a vast advantage, and we shall
probably be much puzzled when they begin their op-
erations again. We shall, however, act cautiously,
and do the best we can. We are anxiously waiting
for northern intelligence.
Please forward the inclosed to General Schuyler
per first opportunity.
Private Correspondence 89
TO GOUVERNEUR MORRIS
Headquarters, Smith's Clove,1 July 22, 1777.
Dear Sir:
Your favor of the eighteenth from Saratoga
reached me yesterday. Your pronouncing Fort
Edward among the other forts indefensible, surprises
me a little, as it is entirely contrary to the representa-
tions of several gentlemen of judgment, who have
had an opportunity of seeing and considering its
situation ; by whom we have been taught to believe
that it would be an excellent post, at least for check-
ing and retarding Burgoyne 's progress. I agree
with you that our principal strength in the quarter
you are, will be in the forests and natural strength of
the country, and in the want of forage, provisions,
carriages, etc., in which the enemy may easily be
thrown, by taking away what there are of those
articles, which, you observe, have never been in
great abundance.
I am doubtful whether Burgoyne will attempt to
penetrate far, and whether he will not content him-
self with harassing our back settlements by parties
assisted by the savages, who, it is to be feared, will
pretty generally be tempted by the enemy's late suc-
cesses to confederate in hostilities against us.
This doubt arises from some appearances that in-
dicate a southern movement of General Howe's army,
which, if it should really happen, will certainly be a
barrier against any further impressions of Burgoyne ;
1 Sussex County, New Jersey; Washington calls this place simply
"The Clove," the name which it bears to-day.
90 Alexander Hamilton
for it cannot be supposed he would be rash enough
to plunge into the bosom of the country without an
expectation of being met by General Howe. Things
must prove very averse to us indeed, should he make
such an attempt, and not be ruined by it. I confess,
however, that the appearances I allude to do not
carry a full evidence in my mind, because they are
opposed by others of a contradictory kind, and be-
cause I cannot conceive upon what principle of
common-sense or military propriety Howe can be
running away from Burgoyne to the southward.
It is much to be wished he may, even though
it should give him the possession of Philadelphia,
which by our remoteness from it, may very well
happen. In this case we may not only, if we think
proper, retaliate, by aiming a stroke at New York;
but we may come upon him with the greatest part
of our collective force, to act against that part which
is under him. We shall then be certain that Bur-
goyne cannot proceed, and that a small force of
Continental troops will be sufficient for that partisan
war which he must carry on the rest of the campaign.
A small force will also be sufficient to garrison
the posts in the Highlands, and prevent any danger
there; so that we shall be able to bring nearly the
whole of the Continental army against Mr. Howe.
The advantages of this are obvious. Should he be
satisfied with the splendor of his acquisition, and
shut himself up in Philadelphia, we can ruin him by
confinement. Should he leave a garrison there and
go forward, we can either fall upon that or his main
body, diminished as it will be by such a measure,
Private Correspondence 91
with our whole force. There will, however, be many
disagreeable consequences attending such an event,
amongst which the foremost is the depreciation of
our currency, which, from the importance in which
Philadelphia is held, cannot fail to ensue.
TO GOUVERNEUR MORRIS
Headquarters, Coryell's Ferry, July 29, 1777.
Dear Sir:
I have the pleasure of your favor of the 25th.
I cannot be induced to think the enemy are so
numerous as you apprehend, and would place no de-
pendence on what is said either by deserters or pris-
oners, further than as it respects their own company,
nor even that with regard to prisoners in general, who
commonly have their cue, as the phrase is, and know
very well how to manufacture stories calculated to
serve the purposes of the side they belong to. If we
may judge at all from the state of the British and
foreign regiments in Howe's army, or the propor-
tion of recruits they have had this year, we cannot
but believe the representations you mention greatly
exaggerated. Though the northern army have not
suffered much by action, they have probably suf-
fered more by sickness than the southern ; for many
accounts agree that they have been very sickly, and
particularly, that there was a great mortality among
them while lying at the Isle of Noix. From the esti-
mate of the first prisoner, they must have been
greatly reduced by some means or other; for it ap-
pears that before his company had been augmented
92 Alexander Hamilton
by the twenty-four foreigners, it was only twenty-
six strong ; and it is very improbable it should have
had so large an augmentation, for I am morally cer-
tain the regiments under Howe have not had fifty
men each as recruits, and I see no reason to suppose
Burgoyne's could have had so much better luck.
Eight companies, at twenty-six men each, amount
to two hundred and eight. Suppose each regiment
to have received one hundred recruits, which, by
every rule of comparison, must be more than the
truth ; this brings a regiment to about three hundred
men. Ten regiments, at three hundred each, amount
to three thousand, the number of the British troops
in Canada. Again, if I am not mistaken, four thou-
sand was the allotment of foreign troops for the
northern department. As the sickness spoken of
fell chiefly upon them, they, in all probability, lost
more in that way than they have gained in recruits.
But, even if this were not the case, they cannot
exceed the original number — four thousand added
to three thousand make seven thousand. Besides
these, there are the grenadiers and light infantry.
Of these there cannot be above eighteen companies
each, which, allowing them to contain every one
fifty men, amount to eighteen hundred — and this
brings them to about eight thousand eight hundred
men in their whole force of British and foreign troops.
Of these, at least one sixth must be unfit for duty,
by every calculation, which reduces the number of
men fit for the field to about seven thousand five
hundred. Part of these must be left in Canada, if it
were for no other purpose than to guard their maga-
Private Correspondence 93
zines, and for other duty of that kind. Nor could
they with safety commit the charge of those things
to the Canadians, many of whom are notoriously
disaffected, and would be very likely to destroy in-
stead of preserve them. From this view, which I
verily believe is too favorable to them, they cannot
bring more than between six and seven thousand
British and foreign troops to act out of Canada.
Out of these six or seven thousand, a considerable
part must be left to garrison Ticonderoga, and se-
cure their rear in case of accidents; for they could
not without madness attempt to advance, and leave
the posts behind them in a defenceless state; and
they may be obliged to increase their attention to
this matter by keeping a body of men somewhere
about the Grants,1 which has been recommended.
When this last deduction is made, Burgoyne cannot
advance with more than between five and six thou-
sand men, to suppose him to act with his whole col-
lective force; except Canadians and Indians, who
are not, by any accounts, numerous.
Let us now take a view of our own force. When
Glover's brigade gets up, and the recruits for the
regiments there, now on their march, arrive, General
Schuyler will have about five thousand Continental
troops. Surely the Eastern States cannot sleep so
soundly, when the danger is so imminent, but that
they will reinforce him with eight or ten thousand
militia. If this happens, and he cannot stop Gen-
eral Burgoyne 's progress, it must proceed from other
causes than the want of men. With about the same
1 The New Hampshire Grants in what is now Vermont.
94 Alexander Hamilton
army last year, General Washington kept Howe with
sixteen or seventeen thousand men at bay.
Perhaps it may be said, there will not be time to
collect this force, as the enemy are advancing with
very great rapidity. I am much mistaken if there
will not be abundant time. The nature of the
ground; the difficulty of transporting the immense
quantity of baggage, provisions, etc., necessary to
accompany an army of five thousand men pene-
trating an enemy's country; the want of wagons for
the purpose; the impediments thrown in their way
by cutting up the roads — all these obstacles will re-
tard their march much more than is at first sight
imagined, and will give full time to prepare them a
good reception.
On the whole, I am clearly of opinion, that unless
Howe co-operates with Burgoyne against your State,
it has very little to fear ; and I even doubt, if he goes
to the southward, whether Burgoyne will attempt
to penetrate far. At present there is every appear-
ance of a southern expedition. Seventy sail of the
enemy's fleet have been seen passing by Little Egg
Harbor, making short tacks towards the Capes of
Philadelphia. Three divisions of the army are ar-
rived here and at Howel's Ferry, four miles up. One
is coming on by way of Princeton, etc. Another
coming after us by way of Morristown. I wish this
last to halt there. Two brigades more have been
ordered to cross the North River and wait further
orders. We shall not, however, pass the Deleware till
we hear of the arrival of the enemy in the Capes of
Philadelphia. Nor will those two brigades be ordered
Private Correspondence 95
on till the same event takes place. We shall act the
most cautious part possible in our circumstances.
I communicated your letter to the General. He
agrees with me in point of the enemy's numbers.
With respect to animating the Eastern States, he
has written the most urgent letter to their several
assemblies, which I am in hopes will answer the end
you propose from sending persons to each of them.
It were to be wished your forts and ships were
well supplied with cannon; but it is wholly out of
the General's line to strip the ships to the eastward
of their cannon for that purpose. If your Conven-
tion were to make application to the Congress or
Board of War, it might succeed; but I should have
very little hope of it.
TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON
Headquarters, Camp at Cross Roads, Aug. 18, 1777.
My Dear Sir:
I most sincerely and heartily sympathize with you
in the distress and danger under which your State
is laboring at this critical period. I lament its mis-
fortunes, as they are wounds to the common cause,
as they more nearly interest those for whom I feel
the warmest regard, and as they are suffered by a
State which I consider in a great measure as my
political parent. I wish any thing in my power
could contribute to its relief.
I am fully sensible, with you, that Mr. Burgoyne's
successes involve the most important consequences
to America, and that a further progress in your State
96 Alexander Hamilton
may bring on all the evils you delineate, and most
deeply affect the common cause. I agree with you
that the loss of your State will be a more afflicting
blow to America than any that could be struck by
Mr. Howe to the southward; and I can assure you
it is regarded in the same light by others whose
thoughts of the matter are of much more conse-
quence than my own. I may also add that his
Excellency has afforded the northern army all the
assistance he could in his circumstances give, with
the least degree of propriety, and were you as well ac-
quainted with those circumstances as I am, you would
be perfectly convinced of the truth of what I assert.
Though I have differed, and still differ, and, I be-
lieve, on the most substantial grounds, with you, as
to the numbers of the enemy, yet I clearly perceive,
from the spirit reigning in our army, and from the
unpardonable backwardness of your eastern neigh-
bors, that you have every thing to fear, notwith-
standing your most strenuous exertions, which, to
the honor of your State, are justly admired, as far
surpassing what might naturally be expected from
you under so many discouragements. I am so
thoroughly impressed with your true situation, that
I am fully of opinion, if Burgoyne is not speedily
checked in his career, he will become the first object
to this army, especially if Howe operates so far to
the southward, as every appearance seems to indi-
cate. Charleston is now thought to be the place of
his destination. He has been seen passing Sino-
puxent,1 steering southward, twelve days ago; and,
1 Sinopuxent Bay on the coast of Maryland.
Private Correspondence 97
as he has not been since heard of, 't is concluded
he must be bound pretty far in that course, and no
object short of Charleston is supposed at all worthy
his attention. However common sense is against
Mr. Howe's going so far to the southward, facts are
so strongly in favor of it, that we must give credit to
them. It is an inadmissible supposition, that he
can be keeping a large fleet so long at sea merely as a
feint, or that he would steer so far out of his way, if
he really intended to operate to the northward; the
more as the season is at hand when he would be liable
to heavy gusts on the southern shores and contrary
winds on his return.
If he goes so far southward, we cannot think of
following him with this army ; and if Burgoyne con-
tinues to penetrate, we must find means to stop him.
This will point out the propriety of uniting this with
the northern army, and falling upon him with their
joint force ; and perhaps nothing is more to be wished
than that affairs should run into this train.
Before this reaches you, you will be informed that
two regiments have gone from Peekskill to reinforce
the northern army, and that Morgan's corps of
riflemen are on their march for the same purpose.
They left Trenton yesterday morning, and as they
march light, and vessels are ordered to be ready
waiting for them at Peekskill, they will soon be at
the place of their destination. It has been my wish
and endeavor for some time past that this corps
might be sent to your assistance. I expect much
from them; they are a picked corps, well-used to
rifles and to wood-fights, commanded by officers of
VOL. IX. — 7.
q8 Alexander Hamilton
distinguished bravery, and have been very service-
able in frequent skirmishes with the enemy. I dare
say these people will soon chastise the forwardness
of the Indians, and I should not be surprised if, after
a little time, they make them desert their British
friends. Their known inconstancy and want of per-
severance give great reason to hope a few drub-
bings will exceedingly discourage them and send, the
greatest part of them home. From every account,
I am led to believe our misfortunes are greatly owing
to a panic dread of the Indian. If this be so, the
presence of Morgan's corps will not fail to have the
most happy effect. It would be well to propagate
through the country and army such ideas of this corps
as will tend to revive the spirits of both inhabitants
and soldiers. If their number, which is about five
hundred, should be exaggerated it would do no harm.
But of all things, my dear sir, let every topic be care-
fully avoided that may tend to breed jealousies
between this corps and the northern troops. Such
jealousies have been, are, and will be more detri-
mental to our affairs than any thing besides.
I communicated your letter to his Excellency.
P. S. — Your express not calling on his return was
the sole reason of your not receiving a letter from
me ; I had written one to go by him.
His Excellency desires his particular respects to
you, and assures you that nothing in his power will
be left undone for your assistance.
Private Correspondence 99
TO GOUVERNEUR MORRIS
Headquarters, Wilmington, Sept. i, 1777.
Dear Sir:
Agreeable to the intention of the council, I have
delivered their inclosed letter to his Excellency, who,
after perusing it, has sealed and forwarded it to Mr.
Hancock.
The relieving Fort Schuyler is a very happy and
important event, and will concur with the two happy
strokes given by Herkimer and Stark, to reverse the
face of affairs and turn the scale against Mr. Bur-
goyne. I hope Captain Montgomery's suggestions
may be right as to his being obliged to advance ; but
I fancy, if he once thinks it unsafe, he will not be
bound by such an empty punctilio as to risk the de-
struction of his army. As General Howe is now
fairly sat down to the southward, the eastern States,
no longer under any apprehensions from him, will be
disposed, I am in hopes, to exert their whole force;
and if they do, I shall wonder at it if Mr. Burgoyne
advances with impunity.
Before this reaches you, you will have heard of
General Howe's coming into Chesapeake Bay, where
he has landed his whole army, within about four
miles of the head of Elk ; a day or two after his land-
ing, he marched from his first position and extended
his van as far as Green Hills. He still lies there in a
state of inactivity, in a great measure, I believe, from
the want of horses to transport his baggage and
stores. It seems he sailed with only about three
weeks' provender, and was six at sea; this has occa-
sioned the death of a great many of his horses, and
ioo Alexander Hamilton
has made skeletons of the rest. He will be obliged
to collect a supply from the neighboring country
before he can move, unless he should be disposed to
make a more hazardous movement than he would
ever be able to justify except by a degree of success
he has no right to expect.
The main body of our army is encamped on the
heights of Wilmington, so as to cover the town. We
have strong parties of light troops and militia ad-
vanced towards the enemy, who have frequent skir-
mishes with them of little consequence, and often
pick up a few prisoners. We have taken at least
seventy since they landed, and have had thirty
deserters. This country does not abound in good
posts. It is intersected by such an infinity of roads,
and is so little mountainous, that it is impossible to
find a spot not liable to capital defects. The one we
now have is, all things considered, the best we could
find; but there is no great dependence to be put
upon it. The enemy will have Philadelphia if they
dare make a bold push for it, unless we fight them a
pretty general action. I opine we ought to do it,
and that we shall beat them soundly if we do. The
militia seem pretty generally stirring. Our army is
in high health and spirits. We shall, I hope, have
twice the enemy's numbers. I would not only fight
them, but I would attack them; for I hold it an
established maxim, that there is three to one in
favor of the party attacking.
Private Correspondence 101
TO THE HONORABLE JOHN HANCOCK PRESIDENT OF
CONGRESS
September 18, 1777.
Sir:
If Congress have not left Philadelphia they ought
to do it immediately without fail ; for the enemy
have the means of throwing a party this night into
the city. I just now passed the Valley Forge — in
doing which a party of the enemy came down and
fired upon us in the boat, by which means I lost my
horse — one man was killed, and another wounded.
The boats were abandoned, and will fall into their
hands. I did all I could to prevent this, but to no
purpose.
TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS
September 18, 1777, 9 o'clock at night.
Sir:
I did myself the honor to write you a hasty line
this evening, giving it as my opinion that the city
was no longer a place of safety for you. I write you
again, lest that letter should not get to hand. The
enemy are on the road to Swedes Ford, the main
body about four miles from it. They sent a party
this evening to Daviser's ferry, which fired upon
me and some others in crossing it, killed one man,
wounded another, and disabled my horse.
They came on so suddenly, that one boat was left
adrift on the other side, which will of course fall into
their hands; and, by the help of that, they will get
possession of another, which was abandoned by
those who had the direction of it, and left afloat, in
102 Alexander Hamilton
spite of every thing I could do to the contrary. These
two boats will convey fifty men across at a time, so
that in a few hours they may throw over a large
party, perhaps sufficient to overmatch the militia
who may be between them and the city. This rend-
ers the situation of Congress extremely precarious,
if they are not on their guard; my apprehensions
for them are great, though it is not improbable they
may not be realized.
The most cogent reasons oblige me to join the army
this night, or I should have waited upon you myself.
I am in hopes our army will be up with the enemy
before they pass Schuylkill: if they are, something
serious will ensue.
TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS
Philadelphia, Sept. 22, 1777.
Sir:
I left camp last evening, and came to the city to
superintend the collection of blankets and clothing
for the army. Mr. Lovell l sends to inform me that
there is an express going off to Congress; and I do
myself the honor to communicate a brief state of
things when I left camp. The enemy moved yes-
terday, from where they lay opposite to Valley Forge,
etc., higher up the river, on their old scheme of gain-
ing our right. I don't know precisely where they
halted; but our army was preparing to move up
also, to counteract them.
I am this morning told they marched about twelve
1 James Lovell of Massachusetts, at this time member of Congress.
Private Correspondence 103
o'clock at night for that purpose. The general
opinion was that the enemy would attempt crossing
this day ; every appearance justified the supposition.
We had intelligence that the enemy had, the
night before last, surprised Generals Smallwood and
Wayne, and consequently dispersed them, after a
small opposition. The loss, it is said, was not great:
and our troops were re-assembling fast at the Red
Lion. This seems to have been a bad look out, and
is somewhat disconcerting.
By a letter from General McDougal, received this
morning, it appears he was, on the twentieth, in the
morning, at Second River, just setting out on his
march toward Woodbridge. He is pressing forward
with all possible expedition. The troops were pretty
well refreshed, and in good spirits.
TO WASHINGTON
Headquarters, Fishkill, Nov. 2, 1777.
Dear Sir:
I lodged last night in the neighborhood of New
Windsor. This morning early, I met Col. Morgan
with his corps, about a mile from it, in march for
headquarters. I told him the necessity of making
all the dispatch he could, so as not to fatigue his
men too much, which he has promised to do.
I understood from Col. Morgan that all the north-
ern army were marching down on both sides the
river, and would probably be to-morrow at New
Windsor and this place, and that General Putnam
had held a council for the general disposition of
io4 Alexander Hamilton
them, in which it was resolved to send you four
thousand men and to keep the rest on this side the
river. I came here in expectation that matters were
in such a train as to enable me to accomplish my
errand without going any farther; unless it should
be to hasten the troops that were on their march.
But on my arrival I learned from Mr. Hughes, an
aid-de-camp of General Gates, that the following
disposition of the northern army had taken place.
General Patterson's, Glover's, and Nixon's bri-
gades, and Colonel Warner's mountain boys, to re-
main in and about Albany; barracks building for
them. General Poor's brigade, marching down this
side of the river to join General Putnam, will be
here probably to-morrow. General Larned's brigade,
Morgan's corps, Warner's brigade of Massachusetts
militia, and some regiments of New York militia, on
their march on the west side of the river.
I have directed General Putnam, in your name, to
send forward with all dispatch to join you the two
Continental brigades and Warner's militia brigade.
This last is to serve till the latter end of this month.
Your instructions did not comprehend any militia,
but as there are certain accounts here that most of
the troops from New York are going to reinforce
General Howe, and as so large a proportion of Con-
tinental troops have been detained at Albany, I
concluded you would not disapprove of a measure
calculated to strengthen you, though but for a
small time, and have ventured to adopt it on that
presumption.
Being informed by General Putnam that General
Private Correspondence 105
Winds, with seven hundred Jersey militia, were at
King's Ferry, with intention to cross to Peekskill, I
prevailed upon him to relinquish that idea and send
off an immediate order for them to march toward
Redbank. It is possible, however, unless your Ex-
cellency supports this order by an application from
yourself, he may march his men home instead of to
the place he has been directed to repair to.
Neither Lee's, Jackson's regiments, nor the de-
tachments belonging to General McDougal's division,
have yet marched. I have pressed their being sent,
and an order has been dispatched for their instantly
proceeding. Colonel Hughes is pressing some fresh
horses for me. The moment they are ready I shall
recross the river in order to fall in with the troops
on the other side, and make all the haste I can to
Albany to get the three brigades there sent forward.
Will your Excellency permit me to observe that I
have some doubts, under present circumstances and
appearances, of the propriety of leaving the regi-
ments proposed to be left in this quarter? But if
my doubts on this subject were stronger than they
are, I am forbid, by the sense of council, from inter-
fering in the matter.
General Poor's brigade is just arrived here; they
will proceed to join you with all expedition. So
strongly am I impressed with the importance of en-
deavoring to crush Mr. Howe, that I am apt to think
it would be advisable to draw off all the Continental
troops. Had this been determined on, General War-
ner's sixteen hundred militia might have been left
here.
106 Alexander Hamilton
TO WASHINGTON
Albany, November, 1777.
Dear Sir:
I arrived here yesterday at noon, and waited upon
General Gates immediately, on the business of my
mission, but was sorry to find that his ideas did not
correspond with yours for drawing off the number of
troops you directed. I used every argument in my
power to convince him of the propriety of the meas-
ure, but he was inflexible in the opinion that two
brigades at least of Continental troops should re-
main in and near this place. His reasons were that
the intelligence of Sir Harry Clinton's having gone
to join Burgoyne was not sufficiently authenticated
to put it out of doubt; that there was therefore a
possibility of his returning up the river, which might
expose the finest arsenal in America (as he calls the
one here) to destruction, should this place be left so
bare of troops as I proposed, and that the want of
conveniences and the difficulty of the roads would
make it impossible to remove artillery and stores
for a considerable time; that the New England
States would be left open to the depredations and
ravages of the enemy ; that it would put it out of his
power to enterprise any thing against Ticonderoga,
which he thinks might be done in the winter and
which he considers it of importance to undertake.
The force of these reasons did by no means strike
me, and I did every thing in my power to show they
were unsubstantial, but all I could effect was to have
one brigade dispatched in addition to those already
marched. I found myself infinitely embarrassed,
Private Correspondence 107
and was at a loss how to act. I felt the importance
of strengthening you as much as possible, but, on
the other hand, I found insuperable inconveniences
in acting diametrically opposite to the opinion of a
gentleman whose successes have raised him to the
highest importance. General Gates has won the
entire confidence of the Eastern States; if disposed
to do it, by addressing himself to the prejudices of
the people he would find no difficulty to render a
measure odious which it might be said, with plausi-
bility enough to be believed, was calculated to ex-
pose them to unnecessary danger, notwithstanding
their exertions during the campaign had given them
the fullest title to repose and security. General
Gates has influence and interest elsewhere ; he might
use it if he pleased to discredit the measure there
also. On the whole, it appears to me dangerous to
insist on sending more troops from hence while Gen-
eral Gates appears so warmly to oppose it. Should
any accident or inconvenience happen in conse-
quence of it, there would be too fair a pretext for
censure, and many people are too well disposed to
lay hold of it. At any rate it might be considered
as using him ill to take a step so contrary to his judg-
ment in a case of this nature. These considerations,
and others I shall be more explicit in when I have
the pleasure of seeing you, determined me not to
insist upon sending either of the other brigades re-
maining here. I am afraid what I have done may
not meet with your approbation, as not being per-
haps fully warranted by your instructions, but I
ventured to do what I thought right, hoping that at
108 Alexander Hamilton
least the goodness of my intention will excuse the
error of my judgment.
I was induced to this relaxation the more readily,
as I had directed to be sent on two thousand militia,
which were not expected by you, and a thousand
Continental troops out of those proposed to be left
with General Putnam, which I have written to him,
since I found how matters were circumstanced here,
to forward to you with all dispatch. I did this for
several reasons: because your reinforcement would
be more expeditious from that place than from this ,
because two thousand Continental troops at Peeks-
kill will not be wanted in its present circumstances,
especially as it was really necessary to have a body
of Continental troops at this place for the security of
the valuable stores here, and I should not, if I had my
wish, think it expedient to draw off more than two
of the three brigades now here. This being the case,
one of the ends you proposed to be answered by
leaving the ten regiments with General Putnam, will
be equally answered by the troops here — I mean that
of covering and fortifying the Eastern States, — and
one thousand Continental troops, in addition to the
militia collected and that may be collected there,
will be sufficient in the Highlands for covering the
country down that way and carrying on the works
necessary to be raised for the defence of the river.
The troops gone and going to reinforce you are
near five thousand rank and file Continental troops,
and two thousand five hundred Massachusetts and
New Hampshire militia. These and the seven hun-
dred Jersey militia will be a larger reinforcement
Private Correspondence 109
than you expected, though not quite an equal num-
ber of Continental troops, nor exactly in the way
directed. General Lincoln tells me the militia are
very excellent; and, though their time will be out
by the last of this month, you will be able, if you
think proper, to order the troops still remaining here
to join you by the time their term of service expires.
I cannot forbear being uneasy, lest my conduct
should prove displeasing to you; but I have done
what, considering all circumstances, appeared to me
most eligible and prudent.
Vessels are preparing to carry the brigade to New
Windsor, which will embark this evening. I shall
this afternoon set out on my return to camp, and on
my way shall endeavor to hasten the troops forward.
TO GENERAL GATES
Albany, November 5, 1777.
Sir:
By inquiry I have learned that General Patterson's
brigade, which is the one you propose to send, is by
far the weakest of the three now here, and does not
consist of more than about six hundred rank and
file fit for duty. It is true that there is a militia
regiment with it of about two hundred, but the term
of service for which this regiment is engaged is so
near expiring, that it would be past by the time the
men could arrive at the place of their destination.
Under these circumstances, I cannot consider it
either as compatible with the good of the service
or my instructions from his Excellency, General
no Alexander Hamilton
Washington, to consent that that brigade be selected
from the three to go to him; but I am under the
necessity of desiring, by virtue of my orders from
him, that one of the others be substituted instead
of this, — either General Nixon's or General Glover's,
— and that you will be pleased to give immediate
orders for its embarkation.
Knowing that General Washington wished me to
pay the greatest deference to your judgment, I ven-
tured so far to deviate from the instructions he gave
me, as to consent, in compliance with your opinion,
that two brigades should remain here instead of one.
At the same time, permit me to observe, that I am
not myself sensible of the expediency of keeping
more than one with the detached regiments in the
neighborhood of this place, and that my ideas coin-
cide with those gentlemen whom I have consulted
on the occasion, whose judgment I have much more
reliance upon than on my own, and who must be
supposed to have a thorough knowledge of all the
circumstances. Their opinion is that one brigade
and the regiments before mentioned would amply
answer the purposes of this post. When I pre-
ferred your opinion to other considerations, I did
not imagine you would pitch upon a brigade little
more than half as large as the others; and, finding
this to be the case, I indispensably owe it to my duty
to desire, in his Excellency's name, that another may
go instead of the one intended, and without loss of
time. As it may be conducive to dispatch to send
Glover's brigade, if agreeable to you, you will give
orders accordingly.
Private Correspondence 1 1 1
TO WASHINGTON
New Windsor, Nov. io, 1777.
Dear Sir:
I arrived here last night from Albany. Having
given General Gates a little time to recollect him-
self, I renewed my remonstrances on the necessity
and propriety of sending you more than one brigade
of the three he had detained with him, and finally
prevailed upon him to give orders for Glover's, in
addition to Patterson's brigade, to march this way.
As it was thought conducive to expedition to send
the troops by water as far as it could be done, I pro-
cured all the vessels that could be had at Albany fit
for the purpose; but could not get more than suffi-
cient to take Patterson's brigade. It was embarked
the 7th instant, and I expected would have been
here before this, but the wind has been contrary;
they must in all probability be here to-day. Gen-
eral Glover's brigade marched at the same time on
the east side of the river, the roads being much better
than on this side. I am at this moment informed
that one sloop with a part of Patterson's is arrived
and that the others are in sight. They will imme-
diately proceed by water to King's Ferry, and
thence take the shortest route to you.
I am pained beyond expression to inform your
Excellency that on my arrival here I find every thing
has been neglected and deranged by General Putnam,
and that the two brigades — Poor's and Larned's —
still remain here and on the other side of the river
at Fishkill. Colonel Warner's militia, I am told,
have been drawn to Peekskill to aid in an expedition
ii2 Alexander Hamilton
against New York, which, it seems, is at this time
the hobby-horse with General Putnam. Not the
least attention has been paid to my order in your
name for a detachment of one thousand men from
the troops hitherto stationed at this post. Every
thing is sacrificed to the whim of taking New
York.
The two brigades of Poor and Larned it appears
would not march for want of money and necessaries ;
several of the regiments having received no pay for
six or eight months past. There has been a high
mutiny among the former on this account, in which
a captain killed a man, and was himself shot by his
comrade. These difficulties, for want of proper
management, have stopped the troops from proceed-
ing. Governor Clinton has been the only man who
has done any thing towards removing them; but,
for want of General Putnam's co-operation, has not
been able to effect it. He has only been able to pre-
vail with Larned's brigade to agree to march to
Goshen, in hopes, by getting them once on the go,
to get them to continue their march. On coming
here I immediately sent for Colonel Bailey, who now
commands Larned's brigade. Have gotten him to
engage for carrying the brigade on to headquarters
as fast as possible. This he expects to effect by mean
of five or six thousand dollars, which Governor Clin-
ton was kind enough to borrow for me, and which
Colonel Bailey thinks will keep the men in good
humor till they join you. They marched this morn-
ing towards Goshen.
I shall as soon as possible see General Poor, and
Private Correspondence 113
do every thing in my power to get him along, and
hope I shall be able to succeed.
The plan I before laid having been totally de-
ranged a new one has become necessary. It is now
too late to send Warner's militia. By the time they
get to you their term of service would be out. The
motive for sending them, which was to give you a
speedy reinforcement, has by the past delay been
superseded.
By Governor Clinton's advice, I have sent an or-
der in the most emphatic terms to General Putnam
immediately to dispatch all the Continental troops
under him to your assistance and to detain the militia
instead of them.
My opinion is that the only present use for troops
in this quarter is to protect the country from the de-
predations of little plundering parties, and for carry-
ing on the works necessary for the defence of the
river. Nothing more ought to be thought of. T is
only wasting time and misapplying men to employ
them in a suicidal parade against New York, for in
this it will undoubtedly terminate. New York is no
object if it could be taken, and to take it would re-
quire more men than could be spared from more
substantial purposes. Governor Clinton's ideas co-
incide with mine. He thinks that there is no need
of more Continental troops here than a few to give a
spur to the militia in working upon the fortifications.
In pursuance of this I have given the directions
before mentioned. If General Putnam attends to
them, the troops under him may be with you nearly
as early as any of the others (though he has
VOL. IX.— 8.
ii4 Alexander Hamilton
unluckily, marched them down to Tarrytown), and
General Glover's brigade, when it gets up, will be
more than sufficient to answer the true end of this
post.
If your Excellency agrees with me in opinion, it
will be well to send instant directions to General
Putnam, to pursue the object I have mentioned; for
I doubt whether he will attend to any thing I shall
say, notwithstanding it comes in the shape of a
positive order. I fear, unless you interpose, the
works here will go on so feebly, for want of men, that
they will not be completed in time; whereas it ap-
pears to me of the greatest importance they should
be pushed with the utmost vigor. Governor Clinton
will do every thing in his power. I wish General
Putnam was recalled from the command of this post,
and Governor Clinton would accept it. The blun-
ders and caprices of the former are endless. Believe
me, sir, nobody can be more impressed with the im-
portance of forwarding the reinforcements coming
to you, with all speed, nor could any body have en-
deavored more to promote it than I have done ; but
the ignorance of some, and the design of others, have
been almost insuperable obstacles. I am very un-
well ; but I shall not spare myself to get things im-
mediately in a proper train; and for that purpose
intend, unless I receive other orders from you, to
continue with the troops in the progress of their
march. As soon as I get General Poor's brigade in
march, I shall proceed to General Putnam's at Peeks-
kill.
Private Correspondence 115
TO WASHINGTON
New Windsor, Nov. 12, 1777.
Dear Sir:
I have been detained here these two days, by a
fever and violent rheumatic pains throughout my
body. This has prevented my being active in per-
son for promoting the purposes of my errand; but I
have taken every other method in my power, in
which Governor Clinton has obligingly given me all
the aid he could. In answer to my pressing applica-
tion to General Poor for the immediate marching of
his brigade, I was told they were under an operation
for the itch; which made it impossible for them to
proceed till the effects of it were over. By a let-
ter, however, of yesterday, General Poor informs me
he would certainly march this morning. I must do
him the justice to say, he appears solicitous to join
you; and that I believe the past delay is not owing
to any fault of his, but is wholly chargeable on Gen-
eral Putnam. Indeed, sir, I owe it to the service to
say, that every part of this gentleman's conduct is
marked with blunder and negligence, and gives gen-
eral disgust.
Parson's brigade will join you, I hope, in five or six
days from this. Larned's may do the same. Poor's
will, I am persuaded, make all the haste they can for
the future, and Glover's may be expected at Fishkill
to-night, whence they will be pressed forward as fast
as I can have any influence to make them go ; but I
am sorry to say, the disposition for marching, in the
officers and men in general, of these troops, does not
n6 Alexander Hamilton
keep pace with my wishes or the exigency of the
occasion. They have, unfortunately, imbibed an
idea that they have done their part of the business
of the campaign, and are now entitled to repose.
This and the want of pay make them averse to a long
march at this advanced season.
A letter from you to General Putnam, of the 9th,
fell just now into my hands. As it might possibly
contain something useful to me, I took the liberty
of opening it and after reading it, immediately dis-
patched it to him. If he has paid any attention to
my last letters to him, things will be in a right train
for executing the order in yours ; but whether he has
or not is a matter of doubt.
In a letter from him just now received by Governor
Clinton, he appears to have been, the 10th instant,
at King's Street, at the White Plains. I have had no
answer to my last applications. The enemy appear
to have stripped New York very bare. The people
there — that is, the Tories, are in a very great fright.
This adds to my anxiety, that the reinforcements
from this quarter to you are not in greater forward-
ness and more considerable.
I have written to General Gates, informing him of
the accounts of the situation of New York with re-
spect to troops, and the probability of the force gone
to Howe being greater than was at first expected —
to try if this will not extort from him a further rein-
forcement. I don't, however, expect much from
him; as he pretends to have in view an expedition
against Ticonderoga, to be undertaken in the winter,
and he knows that, under the sanction of this idea,
Private Correspondence 117
calculated to catch the Eastern people, he may,
without censure, retain the troops. And as I shall
be under a necessity of speaking plainly to your Ex-
cellency, when I have the pleasure of seeing you, I
shall not hesitate to say, I doubt whether you would
have had a man from the Northern army, if the
whole could have been kept at Albany with any de-
cency. Perhaps you will think me blamable in not
having exercised the powers you gave me, and given
a positive order. Perhaps I have been so; but, de-
liberately weighing all circumstances, I did not and
do not think it advisable to do so.
TO GENERAL GATES
FlSHKILL, NOV. 12, 1777.
Sir:
Ever since my arrival in this quarter, I have been
endeavoring to collect the best idea I could of the
state of things in New York, in order the better to
form a judgment of the probable reinforcement gone
to General Howe. On the whole, this is a fact well
ascertained, that New York has been stripped as
bare as possible; that in consequence of this, the
few troops there and the inhabitants are under so
strong apprehensions of an attack, as almost to
amount to a panic; that to supply the deficiency of
men, every effort is making to excite the citizens to
arms for the defence of the city. For this purpose,
the public papers are full of addresses to them, that
plainly speak the apprehensions prevailing on the
occasion.
Hence I infer, that a formidable force is gone to
n8 Alexander Hamilton
General Howe. The calculations made by those
who have had the best opportunities of judging
carry the number from six to seven thousand. If
so, the number gone and going to General Washing-
ton is far inferior ; five thousand at the utmost. The
militia were all detained by General Putnam till it
became too late to send them.
The state of things I gave you when I had the
pleasure of seeing you, was, to the best of my know-
ledge, sacredly true. I give you the present infor-
mation, that you may decide whether any further
succor can with propriety come from you.
The fleet, with the troops on board, sailed out of
the Hook the 5th instant. This circumstance de-
monstrates, beyond the possibility of doubt, that
it is General Howe's fixed intention to endeavor to
hold Philadelphia at all hazards; and removes all
danger of any further operations up the North River
this winter. Otherwise, Sir Harry Clinton's move-
ment, at this advanced season, is altogether inex-
plicable.
If you can with propriety afford any further as-
sistance, the most expeditious manner of conveying
it will be to acquaint General Putnam of it, that he
may send on the troops with him, to be replaced by
them. You, sir, best know the uses to which the
troops with you are to be applied, and will determine
accordingly. I am certain it is not his Excellency's
wish to frustrate any plan you may have in view for
the benefit of the service, so far as it can possibly be
avoided, consistent with a due attention to more im-
portant objects.
Private Correspondence 119
TO WASHINGTON
Mr. Kennedy's House, Peekskill, Nov. 15, 1777.
Sir:
I arrived at this place last night, and unfortu-
nately find myself unable to proceed any further.
Imagining I had gotten the better of my complaint,
which confined me at Governor Clinton's, and anxious
to be about attending to the march of the troops, the
day before yesterday I crossed the ferry, in order to
fall in with General Glover's brigade, which was on
its march from Poughkeepsie to Fishkill. I did not,
however, see it myself, but received a letter from
Colonel Shepherd, who commands the brigade, in-
forming me he would be last night at Fishkill and this
night at King's Ferry. Wagons, etc., are provided
on the other side for his accommodation, so that there
need be no delay but what is voluntary, and I believe
Colonel Shepherd is as well disposed as could be
wished to hasten his march. General Poor's brigade
crossed the ferry the day before yesterday. Two
York regiments — Courtland's and Livingston's — are
with them. They were unwilling to be separated
from the brigade and the brigade from them. Gen-
eral Putnam was unwilling to keep them with him;
and if he had consented to do it, the regiments to
replace them would not join you within six days
as soon as these. The troops now remaining with
General Putnam will amount to about the number
you intended, though they are not exactly the same.
He has detached Colonel Charles Webb's regiment to
you. He says the troops with him are not in a con-
dition to march, being destitute of shoes, stockings,
I2o Alexander Hamilton
and other necessaries; but I believe the true reasons
of his being unwilling to pursue the mode pointed
out by you were his aversion to the York troops and
his desire to retain General Parsons with him.
TO GENERAL PUTNAM
December 9, 1777.
Sir:
I cannot forbear confessing that I am astonished
and alarmed beyond measure to find that all his Ex-
cellency's views have been hitherto frustrated, and
that no single step of those I mentioned to you has
been taken to afford him the aid he absolutely stands
in need of, and by delaying which the cause of Amer-
ica is put to the utmost conceivable hazard. I so
fully explained to you the general's situation that I
could not entertain a doubt that you would make it
the first object of your attention to reinforce him
with that speed the exigency of affairs demanded, but
I am sorry to say he will have too much reason to
think other objects — in comparison with that, in-
significant— have been uppermost. I speak freely
and emphatically, because I tremble at the conse-
quence of the delay that has happened. General
Clinton's reinforcement is probably by this time with
Mr. Howe. This will give him a decisive superiority
over our army. What may be the issue of such a
state of things I leave to the feelings of every friend
to his country capable of foreseeing consequences.
My expressions may perhaps have more warmth
than is altogether proper, but they proceed from the
Private Correspondence 121
overflowing of my heart, in a matter where I con-
ceive this continent essentially interested. I wrote
to you from Albany and desired you would send a
thousand Continental troops of those first proposed
to be left with you. This I understand has not been
done. How the non-compliance can be answered
to General Washington you can best determine. I
now, sir, in the most explicit terms, by his Excel-
lency's authority, give it as a positive order from
him, that all the Continental troops under your com-
mand may be immediately marched to King's Ferry,
there to cross the river and hasten to reinforce the
army under him. The Massachusetts militia are to
be detained instead of them until the troops coming
from the northward arrive. When they do they will
replace, as far as I am instructed, the troops you
shall send away in consequence of this requisition.
The general's idea of keeping troops this way does
not extend farther than covering the country from
any little irruptions of small parties and carrying on
the works necessary for the security of the river. As
to attacking New York, that he thinks ought to be
out of the question at present. If men could be
spared from the other really necessary objects, he
would have no objection to attempting a diversion
by way of New York, but nothing further. As the
times of the Massachusetts and New Hampshire mili-
tia will soon expire, it will be proper to call in time
for a reinforcement from Connecticut. Governor
Clinton will do all in his power to promote objects
in which the state he commands in is so immedi-
ately concerned. Generals Glover's and Patterson's
122 Alexander Hamilton
brigades are on their way down. The number of
Continental troops necessary for this post will be
furnished out of them. I cannot but have the fullest
confidence you will use your utmost exertions to
execute the business of this letter. And I am, with
great respect, sir, your most obedient servant.1
TO GOVERNOR GEORGE CLINTON 2
Headquarters, Feb. 13, 1778.
Dear Sir:
I did myself the honor of writing to you imme-
diately after my arrival at headquarters, in answer
to two letters I found here from you.
There is a matter which often obtrudes itself upon
my mind, and which requires the attention of every
person of sense and prudence among us — I mean a
degeneracy of representation in the great council of
America. It is a melancholy truth, sir, the effects of
which we daily see and feel, that there is not so much
wisdom in a certain body as there ought to be, and
as the success of our affairs absolutely demands.
Many members of it are, no doubt, men in every re-
spect fit for the trust, but this cannot be said of it as
a body. Folly, caprice, a want of foresight, com-
prehension, and dignity characterize the general tenor
1 Reprinted from Hamilton's History of the Republic, i., p. 348.
2 I owe this and the other letters to be given subsequently from the
Clinton papers, to the kindness of Mr. Henry A. Homes, State Librarian
at Albany, and to the late Judge Clinton, editor of the Clinton papers.
This letter was published by the New York Herald in a pamphlet en-
titled "Clinton Correspondence," in 1842, and is now reprinted from
the Clinton papers in the possession of the State of New York.
Private Correspondence 123
of their action. Of this, I dare say, you are sensi-
ble, though you have not, perhaps, so many oppor-
tunities of knowing it as I have. Their conduct, with
respect to the army especially, is feeble, indecisive,
and improvident — insomuch that we are reduced
to a more terrible situation than you can conceive.
False and contracted views of economy have pre-
vented them, though repeatedly urged to it, from
making that provision for officers which was requisite
to interest them in the service, which has produced
such carelessness and indifference to the service as
is subversive to every officer-like quality. They
have disgusted the army by repeated instances of the
most whimsical favoritism in their promotions, and
by an absurd prodigality of rank to foreigners and to
the meanest staff of the army. They have not been
able to summon resolution enough to withstand the
impudent importunity and vain boasting of foreign
pretenders, but have manifested such a ductility and
inconsistency in their proceedings as will warrant
the charge of suffering themselves to be bullied by
every petty rascal who comes armed with ostenta-
tious pretensions of military merit and experience.
Would you believe it, sir, it is become almost pro-
verbial in the mouths of the French officers and
other foreigners, that they have nothing more to do
to obtain whatever they please than to assume a high
tone and assert their own merit with confidence and
perseverance? These things wound my feelings as a
Republican more than I can express, and in some
degree make me contemptible in my own eyes.
By injudicious changes and arrangements in the
124 Alexander Hamilton
middle of a campaign, they have exposed the army
frequently to temporary want, and to the danger of
dissolution from absolute famine. At this very day
there are complaints from the whole line of having
been three or four days without provisions; deser-
tions have been immense, and strong features of
mutiny begin to show themselves. It is indeed to
be wondered at that the soldiery have manifested so
unparalleled a degree of patience as they have. If
effectual measures are not speedily adopted I know
not how we shall keep the army together or make
another campaign.
I omit saying any thing of the want of clothing for
the army. It may be disputed whether more could
have been done than has been done.
If you look into their conduct in the civil line you
will equally discover a deficiency of energy, dignity,
and extensiveness of views ; but of this you can bet-
ter judge than myself, and it is unnecessary to par-
ticularize.
America once had a representation that would do
honor to any age or nation. The present falling off
is very alarming and dangerous. What is the cause ?
or how is it to be remedied? — are questions that the
welfare of these States requires should be well at-
tended to. The great men who composed our first
council ; are they dead, have they deserted the cause,
or what has become of them ? Very few are dead and
still fewer have deserted the cause; they are all, ex-
cept the few who still remain in Congress, either in
the field or in the civil offices of their respective
States; for the greater part are engaged in the latter.
Private Correspondence 125
The only remedy then is to take them out of these
employments and return them to the place where
their presence is infinitely more important.
Each State, in order to promote its own external
government and prosperity, has selected its best
members to fill the offices within itself, and conduct
its own affairs. Men have been fonder of the emolu-
ments and conveniences of being employed at home;
and local attachment falsely operating has made
them more provident for the particular interests of
the State to which they belonged, than for the com-
mon interests of the Confederacy. This is a most
pernicious mistake and must be corrected. How-
ever important it is to give form and efficiency to
your interior constitutions and police, it is infinitely
more important to have a wise general council;
otherwise a failure of the measures of the Union will
overwhelm all your labors for the advancement of
your particular good, and ruin the common cause.
You should not beggar the councils of the United
States to enrich the administration of the several
members. Realize to yourself the consequence of
having a Congress despised at home and abroad. How
can the common force be exerted if the power of col-
lecting it be put in weak, foolish, and unsteady hands ?
How can we hope for success in our European nego-
tiations, if the nations of Europe have no confidence
in the wisdom and vigor of the great Continental
Government? This is the object on which their eyes
are fixed; hence it is, America will derive its im-
portance or insignificance in their estimation.
Arguments to you, sir, need not be multiplied to
126 Alexander Hamilton
enforce the necessity of having a good general coun-
cil ; neither do I think we shall very widely differ as to
the fact that the present is very far from being such.
The sentiments I have advanced are not fit for the
vulgar ear; and circumstanced as I am now, I should
with caution utter them except to those in whom I
may place an entire confidence. But it is time that
men of weight and understanding should take the
alarm, and excite each other to a proper remedy.
For my part, my insignificance allows me to do no-
thing more than to hint my apprehensions to those
of that description who are pleased to favor me with
their confidence. In this view I write to you.
As far as I can judge, the remarks I have made do
not apply to your State nearly so much as to the
other twelve. You have a Duane, a Morris, and,
may I not add, a Duer? But why do you not send
your Jay, and your R. R. Livingston? I wish Gen-
eral Schuyler was either explicitly in the army or in
Congress. For yourself, sir, though I mean no com-
pliments, you must not be spared from where you
are.
But the design of this letter is not so much that
you may use your influence in improving or enlarg-
ing your own representation, as in discreetly giving
the alarm to other States through the medium of
your confidential friends. Indeed, sir, it is necessary
there should be a change. America will shake to its
centre if there is not.
You and I had some conversation when I had the
pleasure of seeing you last, with respect to the exist-
ence of a certain faction. Since I saw you I have
Private Correspondence 127
discovered such convincing traits of the monster that
I cannot doubt its reality in the most extensive
sense. I dare say you have heard enough to settle
the matter in your own mind. I believe it unmasked
its batteries too soon, and begins to hide its head ;
but as I imagine it will only change the storm to a sap,
all the true and sensible friends to their country,
and of course to a certain great man, ought to be
upon the watch to counterplot the secret machina-
tions of his enemies. Have you heard any thing of
Conway's x history ? He is one of the vermin bred in
the entrails of his chimera dire, and there does not
exist a more villainous calumniator and incendiary.
He is gone to Albany on a certain expedition.2
TO GOVERNOR GEORGE CLINTON 3
Headquarters, March 12, 1778.
Sir:
Captain Coleman delivered me your two letters of
the 5th and 6th instant.
The pleasure I have in corresponding with you will
dispose me, whenever I have any thing to communi-
cate that may be worth your attention, or that ap-
pears to me so, to trouble you with my sentiments.
But I shall not expect you to make an equal return
either in quantity or frequency. You will in this
entirely consult your own convenience.
I had previously flattered myself that your ideas
1 The leader of the intrigue against Washington which has become
famous as the "Conway Cabal."
a Endorsed "private" by Governor Clinton, and answered by him
March 5th.
3 From the Clinton papers.
128 Alexander Hamilton
and mine would correspond on certain matters, and
I am glad to find I was not mistaken. I doubt not
the defects of a certain synod will appear to you not
the subject of speculation only, but as disorders
in the State that require a remedy, and will, as far
as your influence reaches, contribute to it. Shall I
speak what seems to me a most melancholy truth ?
It is this : that with the most adequate means to in-
sure success in our contest, the weakness of our coun-
cils will, in all probability, ruin us. Arrangements on
which the existence of the army depends, and almost
the possibility of another campaign, are delayed in
a most astonishing manner, and I doubt whether
they will be adopted at all.
A late resolve directs G. W.1 to fix the number of
men under which G. H.2 shall not send any parties
out of his lines on pain of being treated as marauders.
The folly of this is truly ridiculous; but as there is
perhaps nothing but folly in it, it may be excused
in them. Another resolve made for punishing kid-
nappers or persons who aid the enemy in carrying
off the peaceable inhabitants, has a retrospective
view to those who; have assisted, as well as a pro-
spective one to those who shall assist, in such prac-
tices. Thus we have gotten into the spirit of making
ex post facto laws, or rather, violating all law. An-
other resolve by plain implication acknowledges a
thing not founded on fact, which is very injurious to
us — to wit, that we have enlisted prisoners of war.
This silences all our complaints against the enemy for
a similar practice and furnishes them with a damn-
1 General Washington. * General Howe.
Private Correspondence 129
ing answer to any thing we can say on the subject.
This is at least an instance of folly and inconsidera-
tion, and serves to prove the general charge.
These men seem also to have embraced a system
of infidelity. They have violated the convention of
Saratoga, and I have reason to believe the ostensible
motives for it were little better than pretences, that
had no foundation. I have lately seen some letters
from Burgoyne on the subject. There was, however,
a strong temptation for this, and it may be excused,
though I cannot say the measure is to my taste.
Lately a flag with provisions and clothing for the
British prisoners with G. W.'s passport was seized
at Lancaster. The affair was attended with circum-
stances of violence and meanness that would disgrace
Hottentots. Still more lately, G. W.'s engagements
with G. H. for an exchange of prisoners have been
most shamefully violated, Congress have resolved
that no exchange shall take place till all accounts are
settled and the balance due the U. S. paid. The
beauty of it is, on a fair settlement, we shall without
doubt be in Mr. Howe's debt; and, in the meantime,
we detain his officers and soldiers as a security for the
payment — perhaps forever. At any rate, it cannot
take place all next summer.
It is thought to be bad policy to go into an ex-
change; but, admitting this to be true, it is much
worse policy to commit such frequent breaches of
faith and ruin our national character. Whatever re-
fined politicians may think, it is of great consequence
to preserve a national character; and, if it should
once seem to be a system in any State to violate
VOL. IX.— 9.
13° Alexander Hamilton
its faith whenever it is the least inconvenient to
keep it, it will unquestionably have an ill effect upon
foreign negotiations, and tend to bring Government
at home in contempt, and, of course, to destroy its
influence. The general notions of justice and human-
ity are implanted in almost every human breast
and ought not to be too freely shocked. In the
present case the passions of the country and army
are on the side of an exchange, and a studied attempt
to avoid it will disgust both and serve to make the
source odious. It will injure drafting and recruiting,
discourage the militia, and increase the discontents
of the army. The prospects of hopeless captivity
cannot but be very disagreeable to men constantly
exposed to the chance of it. Those whose lot it is to
fall into it, will have little scruple to get out of it by
joining the enemy.
It is said not to be our present interest to exchange,
because we shall endeavor, by and by, to take ad-
vantage of the enemy's weakness to strike some de-
cisive blow. If we should fail in this, which I believe
we shall, when they get reinforced, we shall not think
it our interest to add to the strength of an enemy,
already strong enough, and so on ad infinitum. The
truth is, considered in the mere view of barter, it can
never be our interest to exchange; the constitution
of our army, from the short term of enlistments and
the dependence we are obliged to place in the militia,
are strongly opposed to it; and if the argument of
present interest be adhered to, we never can ex-
change. I may venture to assert there never can be
a time more proper than the present, or, rather, a
Private Correspondence 131
month or two hence; and go about it as soon as we
please, the previous negotiations necessary and other
circumstances will, of course, procrastinate it for
some time. And I would ask whether, in a republican
State and a republican army, such a cruel policy
as that of exposing those men who are foremost in
defense of their country, to the miseries of hopeless
captivity, can succeed?
For my own part, I have so much of the milk of
humanity in me, that I abhor such Neronian maxims ;
and I look upon the old proverb that honesty is the
best policy to be so generally true, that I can never
expect any good from a system at real deviation from
it; and I never can adopt the reasonings of some
American politicians, deducible from their practice,
that no regard is to be paid to national character
or the rules of good faith.
I dwell upon the faults of Congress, because I think
they strike at the vitals of our opposition and of our
future prosperity; and with this idea, I cannot but
wish that every gentleman of influence in the country
should think with me.
We have nothing new in camp, save that Capt.
Barry, late of a continental frigate, has destroyed,
with a few gun-boats, two large ships belonging to
the enemy, laden with forage from Rhode Island.
He also took an armed schooner, which he has since
been obliged to run on shore, after a gallant defence.
'T is said he has saved her cannon and stores ; among
the ordnance, four brass howitzers. Some accounts
say the enemy are preparing to evacuate Philadel-
phia. Sed credat Judceus Apelles, non ego.
132 Alexander Hamilton
TO WILLIAM DUER, M.C.1
Headquarters, June 18, 1778.
Dear Sir:
I take the liberty to trouble you with a few hints
on a matter of some importance. Baron Steuben,
who will be the bearer of this, waits on Congress to
have his office arranged upon some decisive and per-
manent footing. It will not be amiss to be on your
guard. The Baron is a gentleman for whom I have
a particular esteem, and whose zeal, intelligence, and
success, the consequence of both, entitle him to the
greatest credit. But I am apprehensive, with all his
good qualities, that a fondness for power and im-
portance, natural to every man, may lead him to
wish for more extensive prerogatives in his depart-
ment than it will be for the good of the service to
grant. I should be sorry to excite any prejudice
against him on this account ; perhaps I may be
mistaken in my conjecture. The caution I give will
do no harm if I am; if I am not, it may be useful.
In either case, the Baron deserves to be considered as
a valuable man and treated with all the deference
which good policy will warrant.
On the first institution of this office, the General
allowed him to exercise more ample powers than
would be proper for a continuance. They were
necessary in the commencement, to put things in a
train with a degree of dispatch which the exigency
of our affairs required; but it has been necessary to
1 Baron Steuben was appointed Inspector-general of the Army May
5, 1778, and this letter, which is undated in the edition of 1850, refers
to that office.
Private Correspondence 133
restrain them, even earlier than was intended. The
novelty of the office excited questions about its
boundaries; the extent of its operations alarmed the
officers of every rank for their own rights. Their
jealousies and discontents were rising fast to a height
that threatened to overturn the whole plan. It be-
came necessary to apply a remedy. The General has
delineated the functions of the Inspectorship in gen-
eral orders, a copy of which will be sent to Congress.
The plan is good and satisfactory to the army in
general.
It may be improved, but it will be unsafe to deviate
essentially from it. It is of course the General's
intention, that whatever regulations are adopted
by him, should undergo the revision and receive
the sanction of Congress ; but it is indispensable, in
the present state of our army, that he should have the
power, from time to time, to introduce and authorize
the reformations necessary in our system. It is a
work which must be done by occasional and gradual
steps, and ought to be intrusted to a person on the
spot who is thoroughly acquainted with all our de-
fects and has judgment sufficient to adopt the pro-
gressive remedies they require. The plan established
by Congress, on a report of the Board of War, when
Conway was appointed, appears to me exception-
able in many respects. It makes the Inspector
independent of the Commander-in-chief ; confers
powers which would produce universal opposition in
the army ; and, by making the previous concurrence
of the Board of War requisite to the introduction of
every regulation which should be found necessary,
134 Alexander Hamilton
opens such a continual source of delay as would
defeat the usefulness of the institution. Let the
Commander-in-chief introduce, and the Legislature
afterwards ratify or reject, as they think proper.
Perhaps you will not differ much from me when I
suppose, that, so far as relates to the Board of War,
the former scheme was a brat of faction, and therefore
ought to be renounced.
There is one thing which the Baron has much at
heart, which, in good policy, he can by no means be
indulged in ; it is the power of enforcing that part of
discipline which we understand by subordination or
an obedience to orders. This power can only be
properly lodged with the Commander-in-chief, and
would inflame the whole army if put into other hands.
Each captain is vested with it in his company, each
colonel in his regiment, each general in his particular
command, and the Commander-in-chief in the whole.
When I began this letter I did not intend to meddle
with any other subject than the inspectorship, but
one just comes into my head which appears to me of
no small importance. The goodness or force of an
army depends as much, perhaps more, on the compo-
sition of the corps which form it, as on its collective
number. The composition is good or bad — not only
to the quality of the men, but in proportion to the
completeness or incompleteness of a corps in respect
to numbers. A regiment, for instance, with a full
complement of officers and fifty or sixty men, is not
half so good as a company with the same number of
men. A colonel will look upon such a command as
unworthy his ambition, and will neglect and despise
Private Correspondence 135
it: a captain would pride himself in it, and take all
the pains in his power to bring it to perfection. In
one case we shall see a total relaxation of discipline
and negligence of every thing that constitutes mili-
tary excellence ; in the other there will be attention,
energy, and every thing that can be wished. Opinion,
whether well- or ill-founded, is the governing princi-
ple of human affairs. A corps much below its estab-
lishment, comparing what it is with what it ought to
be, loses all confidence in itself, and the whole army
loses that confidence and emulation which are essen-
tial to success. These, and a thousand other things
that will occur to you, make it evident that the most
important advantages attend the having complete
corps, and proportional disadvantages the reverse.
Ten thousand men, distributed into twenty imperfect
regiments, will not have the efficiency of the same
number in half the number of regiments. The fact
is, with respect to the American army, that the want
of discipline and other defects we labor under, are as
much owing to the skeleton state of our regiments as
to any other cause. What then ?
Have we any prospects of filling our regiments?
My opinion is, that we have nearly arrived at our ne
plus ultra. If so, we ought to reduce the number of
corps, and give them that substance and consistency
which they want, by incorporating them together, so
as to bring them near their establishment. By this
measure the army would be infinitely improved ; and
the State would be saved the expense of maintaining
a number of superfluous officers.
In the present condition of our regiments, they are
136 Alexander Hamilton
incapable even of performing their common exercises
without joining two or more together: an expedient
reluctantly submitted to by those officers who see
themselves made second in command of a battalion,
instead of first, as their commission imports; which
happens to every younger colonel whose regiment is
united with that of an elder.
What would be the inconveniencies, while the
officers who remain in command, and who might be
selected from the others on account of superior merit,
would applaud themselves in the preference given
them, and rejoice at a change which confers such
additional consequence on themselves?
Those who should be excluded by the measure
would return home discontented, and make a noise,
which would soon subside and be forgotten among
matters of greater moment. To quiet them still
more effectually, if it should be thought necessary,
they might be put upon half -pay for a certain time.
If, on considering this matter, you should agree
with me in sentiment, it were to be wished the scheme
could be immediately adopted, while the arrange-
ment now in hand is still unexecuted. If it is made,
it will be rather inconvenient, immediately after, to
unhinge and throw the whole system again afloat.
When you determined upon your last arrangement,
you did not know what success the different States
might have had in draughting and recruiting. It
would then have been improper to reduce the number
of corps, as proposed. We have now seen their suc-
cess: we have no prospect of seeing the regiments
filled; we should reduce them.
Private Correspondence 137
TO LAFAYETTE
25th June, 1778.
Sir:
We find, on our arrival here, that the intelligence
received on the road is true. The enemy have all
filed off from Allen Town, on the Monmouth road.
Their rear is said to be a mile westward of Lawrence
Taylor's tavern, six miles from Allen Town. General
Maxwell is at Hyde's Town, about three miles from
this place. General Dickinson is said to be on the
enemy's right flank; but where, cannot be told. We
can hear nothing certain of General Scott ; but, from
circumstances, he is probably at Allen Town. We
shall, agreeably to your request, consider and appoint
some proper place of rendezvous for the union of our
force, which we shall communicate to Generals Max-
well and Scott, and to yourself. In the meantime, I
would recommend to you to move toward this place
as soon as the convenience of your men will permit.
I am told that Colonel Morgan is on the enemy's right
flank. We had a slight skirmish with their rear this
forenoon, at Robert Montgomery's, on the Monmouth
road, leading from Allen Town. We shall see Gen-
eral Maxwell immediately, and you will hear from us
again. Send this to the General after reading it.
Doctor Stile's House, Cranbury Town, 9 o'clock.
We are just informed that General Scott passed by
Hooper's tavern, five miles from Allen Town, this
afternoon, at five o'clock.
i38 Alexander Hamilton
TO WASHINGTON
Robin's Tavern, 8 miles from Allen Town,
12 o'clock, June 26, 1778.
Sir:
We have halted the troops at this place. The
enemy, by our last reports, were four miles from this
(that is, their rear), and had passed the road which
turns off toward South Amboy, which determines
their route toward Shrewsbury. Our reason for
halting, is the extreme distress of the troops for want
of provisions. General Wayne's detachment is al-
most starving, and seems both unwilling and unable
to march further till they are supplied. If we do not
receive an immediate supply, the whole purpose of
our detachment must be frustrated.
This morning we missed doing any thing, from a
deficiency of intelligence. On my arrival at Cran-
bury yester-evening, I proceeded, by desire of the
Marquis, immediately to Hyde's Town and Allen
Town, to take measures for co-operating with the
different parts of the detachment, and to find what
was doing to procure intelligence. I found every pre-
caution was neglected ; no horse was near the enemy,
nor could be heard of till late in the morning, so that
before we could send out parties and get the necessary
information, they were in full march: and as they
have marched pretty expeditiously, we should not be
able to come up with them during the march of the
day, if we did not suffer the impediment we do, on the
score of provisions. We are entirely at a loss where
the army is, which is no inconsiderable check to our
enterprise. If the army is wholly out of supporting
Private Correspondence 139
distance, we risk the total loss of the detachment in
making an attack.
If the army will countenance us, we may do some-
thing clever. We feel our personal honor, as well as
the honor of the army, and the good of the service,
interested; and are heartily desirous to attempt
whatever the disposition of our men will second, and
prudence authorize. It is evident the enemy wish
to avoid, not to engage us.
Desertions, I imagine, have been pretty consider-
able to-day. I have seen eight or ten deserters and
have heard of many more. We have had some little
skirmishing by detached parties: one attacked their
rear-guard with a degree of success, killed a few, and
took seven prisoners.
An officer has just come in, who informs that he
left the enemy's rear five miles off, still in march,
about half an hour ago. To ascertain still more
fully their route, I have ordered a fresh party on
their left, toward the head of their column. They
have three brigades in rear of their baggage.
TO WASHINGTON
June 28, 1778.
Sir:
The result of what I have seen and heard, concern-
ing the enemy, is, that they have encamped with
their van a little beyond Monmouth Court House,
and their rear at Manalapan's river, about seven
miles from this place. Their march to-day has been
very judiciously conducted ; — their baggage in front,
i4° Alexander Hamilton
and their flying army in the rear, with a rear-guard
of one thousand men about four hundred paces
from the main body. To attack them in this situa-
tion, without being supported by the whole army,
would be folly in the extreme. . If it should be
thought advisable to give the necessary support, the
whole army can move to some position near the
enemy's left flank, which would put them in a very
awkward situation, with so respectable a body in
their rear ; and it would put it out of their power to
turn either flank, should they be so disposed. Their
left is strongly posted, and I am told their right also.
By some accounts one part of their army lies on the
road leading from the Monmouth road to South Am-
boy. It is not improbable that South Amboy may
be the object.
I had written thus far when your letter to the
Marquis arrived. This puts the matter on a totally
different footing. The detachment will march to-
morrow morning at three o'clock to English Town.
TO ELIAS BOUDINOT1
July s, 1778.
Dear Sir:
We have made another detachment of a thousand
men under General Wayne, and formed all the de-
tached troops into an advanced corps, under the
1 The distinguished New Jersey patriot and statesman ; at this time
member of Congress and Commissary General of Prisoners; afterwards
President of Congress, and from 1789-1795 member of the National
House of Representatives.
Private Correspondence 141
command of the Marquis de Lafayette. The project
was that this advanced corps should take the first
opportunity to attack the enemy's rear on a march,
to be supported or covered, as circumstances should
require, by the whole army. General Lee's conduct
with respect to the command of this corps was truly
childish. According to the incorrect notions of our
army, his seniority would have entitled him to the
command of the advanced corps ; but he in the first
instance declined it in favor of the marquis. Some of
his friends having blamed him for doing it, and Lord
Stirling having shown a disposition to interpose his
claim, General Lee very inconsistently reasserted his
pretensions. The matter was a second time accom-
modated, General Lee, and Lord Stirling agreed to let
the Marquis command. General Lee, a little time
after, recanted again, and became very importunate.
The General (Washington), who had all along ob-
served the greatest candor in the matter, grew tired
of such fickle behavior, and ordered the Marquis to
proceed.
I never saw the General to so much advantage.
His coolness and firmness were admirable. He in-
stantly took measures for checking the enemy's
advance, and giving time to the army, which was
very near, to form and make a proper disposition.
He then rode back, and had the troops formed on a
very advantageous piece of ground, in which, and in
other transactions of the day, General Lee and Lord
Stirling rendered very essential service, and did them-
selves great honor. America owes a great deal to
General Washington for this day's work. A general
142 Alexander Hamilton
rout, dismay, and disgrace would have attended the
whole army in any other hands but his. By his own
good sense and fortitude, he turned the fate of the
day. Other officers have great merit in performing
their parts well, but he directed the whole with the
skill of a master workman. He did not hug himself
at a distance and leave an Arnold to win laurels for
him, but by his own presence he brought order out of
confusion, animated his troops, and led them to suc-
cess. After a tribute to Wayne, Stewart, Ramsey,
Olney, Livingston, Barber, Cilley, Parker, Craig, and
Oswald, the behavior of the officers and men was such
as could not easily be surpassed. Our troops, after
the first impulse from mismanagement, behaved with
more spirit and moved with greater order than the
British troops. You know my way of thinking of
our army, and that I am not apt to flatter it. I
assure you I never was pleased with them before this
day. What think you now of General Lee ? What-
ever a court martial may decide, I shall continue to
believe and say, — his conduct was monstrous and
unpardonable.1
TO LORD STIRLING (?) a
July 14th (?), 1778.
Sir:
Since the giving my evidence at the Court Martial,
I have been endeavoring to recollect more particu-
1 Reprinted from Hamilton's History of the Republic, i., pp. 468 and
478.
2 William Alexander, commonly called in America Lord Stirling, from
his claim to that earldom, was President of the Court Martial which
tried Gen. Charles Lee for his conduct at the battle of Monmouth, and
Private Correspondence H3
larly the import of the conversation between General
Lee and myself, that happened in the field the day of
the action, and which was the subject of discussion
yesterday before the court. My memory will not
serve me on the occasion, in so clear a manner as I
could wish ; but I have been able to form some more
distinct ideas, than those expressed when I was in-
terrogated by General Lee, which I communicate to
you to make what use of them you think proper. On
my making some remarks to General Lee which I
now forget, he asked me the following questions, or
others to the same effect, and I think partly in the
same words — " Do I appear to you to have lost my
senses, or do I not possess myself?"
My answer to these questions I do not perfectly
recollect, but I remember that it was a favorable one,
though I am unable to determine to what extent.
It will be readily conceived that so singular and un-
expected a question was not a little embarrassing, and
it is possible I may have replied in terms of less re-
serve and caution than I should have done at a
moment of greater tranquillity and cooler reflection.
I perfectly remember what passed in my mind upon
the occasion with respect to General Lee's conduct,
and, from the most deliberate and unbiassed retro-
spect of it, my judgment entirely coincides with what
I then thought. His answers to what was said to
him were pertinent, and his behavior had not the
least appearance of concern on the score of personal
it is probable therefore that this hitherto unpublished letter from the
Hamilton papers in the State Department, was addressed to him.
Hamilton testified at the trial on July 4th and July 13th.
1 44 Alexander Hamilton
security. So far he possessed himself and could not
be said to have lost his senses according to his own
expressions. But he certainly did not appear to me
to be in that collected state of mind or to have that
kind of self-possession which is an essential requisite
of the General, and which alone can enable him in
critical emergencies to take his measures with the
promptitude and decision they require. A certain
indecision, improvidence, and hurry of spirits to the
best of my recollection were apparent. These were
my thoughts at the time, and it is natural for me to
believe that what I replied to General Lee could not be
inconsistent with them.
This letter I mean as explanatory to my testimony
of yesterday, founded upon my reflections since, and
if it can be done with propriety, I shall be glad it may
be admitted by the court as such.
TO WASHINGTON
Black Point, July 20, 1778.
Sir:
Inclosed I transmit your Excellency a letter from
Count D'Estaing.1 He has had the river sounded,
and finds he cannot enter. He will sail for Rhode
Island to-morrow evening. In the meantime, he is
making demonstrations to deceive the enemy, and
beget an opinion that he intends to operate in this
1 Count D'Estaing arrived in Delaware Bay on July 8th, ten days too
late to intercept the British. He sailed for New York and remained
some time in the lower bay, unable to get pilots to take him up. He
then sailed for Newport, where he arrived July 29th. This letter was
written just before D'Estaing's departure from New York.
Private Correspondence 145
quarter. He would sail immediately, but he awaits
the arrival, or to hear, of a frigate which carried Mr.
Gerard to Delaware, and which he appointed to meet
him at Sandy Hook ; so that he fears that his sudden
and unexpected departure, before she arrives, might
cause her to be lost. He will not, however, wait
longer than to-morrow evening. We have agreed
that five cannon, fired briskly, shall be a signal of his
arrival by day, and the same number, with five sky-
rockets, a signal by night. In communicating this
to General Sullivan, the Count wishes not a moment
may be lost; and that he may be directed to have
persons stationed on the coast, and intermediate
expresses, to facilitate the communication between
them. Pilots will be a material article. He begs
that every thing may be forwarded as much as pos-
sible ; and as many troops collected as may be. He
would be glad if a detachment could march from your
army, or could be sent by water; for which purpose
he would send covering ships, and some vessels he
has taken, by way of transports ; but he cannot think
of losing so much time as seems necessary. If the
water scheme could shorten it, it would be a happy
circumstance. He recommends it to your attention;
and that you would take measures, if the end can
be better answered in this way, and meet him with
information of the part he may have to act to exe-
cute the plan. I perceive he can, with difficulty,
debark four thousand troops ; but he will try to do it.
I hope your Excellency will excuse my not being
myself the bearer of these particulars ; the end may
be answered by letter. Mr. Neville is anxious to get
VOL. IX.— IO.
146 Alexander Hamilton
on. I just have heard of dispatches arrived from
you. I don't know but they may contain something
new which may make the Count to wish a good con-
veyance to return an answer. My stay until to-
morrow morning may answer that end. I shall not
delay coming forward.
TO WASHINGTON
Newark, July 23, 1778, one o'clock.
Sir:
I wrote to your Excellency the evening of the 20th
by Major Neville. I remained in the neighborhood
of Black Point till the afternoon following. The
Count had received his expected dispatches from
Congress, and was to sail, as I mentioned before, the
first fair wind. At Brunswick yesterday Mr. Cald-
well joined me. He was immediately from the Point,
and brought intelligence that the fleet got under way
yesterday morning. The wind, unfortunately, has
been much against them, which is so much the more
to be regretted, as they are rather in want of water.
I need not suggest to your Excellency that an es-
sential part of the Rhode Island plan is to take every
possible measure to watch the enemy's motions and
to establish expresses from place to place, to give the
Count instant information of any movement among
their fleet. This will enable him to be in time to
intercept them should they attempt to evacuate New
York while he is at Rhode Island ; and will, in general,
facilitate the intercourse and co-operation between
him and your Excellency.
I have nothing new to communicate beside what
Private Correspondence 147
was sent by Major Neville and what I now send. All
the ideas interchanged between the Count and myself
were such as were familiar before I left headquarters.
He was to go to Rhode Island, and, in connection
with General Sullivan, endeavor to possess himself
of the enemy's ships and troops there; if, on his
arrival, he had good reason to think it could be
effected without further assistance. If not, he will
be glad of a reinforcement from you in the most
expeditious manner possible. What manner you
think will be most expeditious, you will adopt; and
if his aid may be useful, he will afford it as soon as
he is informed of it.
This being the case, my immediate presence at
headquarters is the less necessary as to this business ;
and I hope your Excellency will indulge me, if I do
not make all the dispatch back which a case of
emergency would require, though I do not mean to
delay more than a moderate attention to my frail
constitution may make not improper.
TO ELIAS BOUDINOT
July 26, 1778.
Dear Sir:
Baron Steuben will do me the honor to deliver you
this. He waits upon Congress in a temper which I
very much regret — discontented with his situation,
and almost resolved to quit the service. You know
we have all the best opinion of this gentleman's mili-
tary merit, and shall, of course, consider his leaving
the army as a loss to it. Whether any expedient can
be adopted to reconcile difficulties and retain him in
148 Alexander Hamilton
the service, at the same time that no disgust is given
to others who ought not to be disgusted, I cannot
certainly determine. But I should conceive it would
not be impossible to find such an expedient. You
have no doubt heard while you were with the army
of the obstacles thrown in his way by many of the
general officers, excited to it by Lee and Mifflin, as
I believe, in the execution of the inspectorship; and
you have, it is equally probable, heard of the arrange-
ment the General was in a manner obliged to adopt
to silence the clamors which existed among them,
and place the inspectorate upon a footing more con-
formable to their ideas. The opposition the Baron
met with in this case was one cause of dissatisfaction
to him. In our march from Brunswick, as the Baron
was unemployed, and there was a great deficiency of
general officers, notwithstanding the ideas of the
army are against giving a command in the line to a
person vested with an office similar to that held by
him, the General ventured to give him the temporary
command of a division during the march, in conse-
quence of which the command of a wing devolved
upon him. This was a source of offence to many.
When we came near the White Plains the General
thanked him in general orders for his services, and
requested he would resume the exercise of his former
office. To this, on account of the opposition he had
already met with, and from the original plan for the
inspectorship being mutilated, he discovered very
great disinclination, and expressed desire to preserve
a command in the line, and, from some conversation
we had together, I apprehend he means to resign his
Private Correspondence 149
present appointment, if he cannot have a command
suited to his rank annexed to it. You will see by
the General's letters what are his sentiments, both
with respect to the duties of the inspectorship and
the Baron's holding a command in the line. Far be
it from me to wish to contravene his views ; you may
be assured they cannot be essentially departed from
without very serious inconvenience. But if any
thing could be done consistent with them to satisfy
the Baron, it would be extremely desirable. Perhaps
the principle on which the General's arrangement is
formed may be preserved, and, at the same time, the
objects of the inspectorship enlarged, so as to render
it a more important employment. Perhaps a reso-
lution of Congress giving the Baron a right to be
employed on detachments might for the present
compensate for the want of a permanent command
in the line and might not be disagreeable to the
officers. You can sound him on these heads. I
need not caution you that this is a matter of great
delicacy and importance, and that every step taken
in it ought to be well considered.1
TO ELIAS BOUDINOT
September (?) i778.a
You know the feuds and discontents which have
attended the departure of the French fleet from
Rhode Island. You are probably not uninformed of
the imprudence of General Sullivan on the occasion,
1 Reprinted from Hamilton's History of the Republic, i., p. 488.
2 The French left New York for Newport at the end of July, and the
battle of Quaker Hill was fought on August 29th.
150 Alexander Hamilton
particularly in the orders he issued charging our allies
with refusing to assist us. This procedure was the
summit of folly, and has made a very deep impression
upon the minds of the Frenchmen in general, who
naturally consider it as an unjust and ungenerous
reflection on their nation. The stigmatizing an ally
in public orders, and one with whom we meant to
continue in amity, was certainly a piece of absurdity
without parallel. The Frenchmen expect the State
will reprobate the conduct of their general, and by
that means make atonement for the stain he has
attempted to bring upon French honor. Something
of this kind seems necessary, and will in all likelihood
be expected by the Court of France, but the manner
of doing it suggests a question of great delicacy and
difficulty, which I find myself unable to solve. The
temper with which General Sullivan was actuated
was too analogous to that which appeared in the
generality of those concerned with him in the expe-
dition, and to the sentiments prevailing among the
people. Though men of discretion will feel the im-
propriety of his conduct, yet there are too many who
will be ready to make a common cause with him
against any attempt of the public authority to con-
vince him of his presumption, unless the business is
managed with great address and circumspection.
The credit universally given him for a happy and
well-conducted retreat, will strengthen the senti-
ments in his favor, and give an air of cruelty to any
species of disgrace which might be thrown upon a
man, who will be thought rather to deserve the
esteem and applause of his country. To know how
Private Correspondence 151
to strike the proper string will require more skill than
I am master of; but I would offer this general hint,
that there should be a proper mixture of the sweet
and bitter in the potion which may be administered.
I am sure it will give you pleasure to have heard that
our friend Greene did ample justice to himself on this
expedition ; and that Laurens * was as conspicuous
as usual. But while we celebrate our friends and
countrymen, we should not be forgetful of those
meritorious strangers who are sharing the toils and
dangers of America. Without derogating from the
merit of the other French gentlemen who distin-
guished themselves, Mr. Toussard2 may be justly
allowed a pre-eminent place. In the enthusiasm of
heroic valor, he attempted, single and unseconded,
to possess himself of one of the enemy's field-pieces,
which he saw weakly defended. He did not effect it,
and the loss of his arm was the price of his bravery —
his horse was shot under him at the same time ; but
we should not the less admire the boldness of the
exploit from a failure in the success. This gentle-
man has now, in another and more signal instance,
justified the good opinion I have long entertained of
him, and merited by a fresh testimony of his zeal,
as well as a new stroke of misfortune, the considera-
1 John Laurens, Hamilton's friend and his comrade on Washington's
staff.
2 Colonel Louis Toussard was one of the officers who came out in
1777, recommended by Silas Deane. For his gallantry in this action he
was brevetted a Lieutenant-Colonel and received a pension from Con-
gress. He afterwards served his own government in the West Indies,
and in 1794 returned to this country. He was an officer in our army
from 1795 to 1802, and afterwards French Consul at New Orleans,
1812-1815.
152 Alexander Hamilton
tion of Congress. The splendid action he has now
performed, and for which he has paid so dear should
neither be concealed from the public eye, nor the
public patronage. You are at liberty to commit this
part of my letter to the press.1
TO
Headquarters, Nov. 8, 1778.
Dear Sir:
I have received your favor of the 4th, and shall
with pleasure communicate the intelligence we have
had at headquarters. On the morning of the 3d
one hundred and eight sail of vessels sailed out of
the Hook, — supposed, from the best calculations, to
contain seven or eight thousand men. They first
steered to the eastward, but soon after changed their
course and bore S. E. with the wind at N. W. The
general accounts from New York speak of three dis-
tinct embarkations : one for the West Indies, another
for Halifax, another for St. Augustine. One divi-
sion, which seems to be best ascertained, contains ten
or twelve British regiments and most of the new
levies, which probably went in the above-mentioned
fleet.
This much is pretty certain, that the embarkation
has continued since the departure of that fleet, which
is a strong circumstance in favor of a general evacua-
tion. All their vessels the least out of repair are
drawn up to the different ship-yards, and their re-
pairs are going on with all possible vigor. Whether
the merchants are packing up or not, is a point still
1 Reprinted from Hamilton's History of the Republic, i., 494.
Private Correspondence 153
much in dubio; though we have several accounts
that look like it, but they are not so precise and
certain as could be wished. Several bales of goods
have been seen on the wharves, marked for particular
ships. A deserter, indeed, lately from the city, in-
sists that he saw Coffin and Anderson packing up.
This, if true, would be decisive, for this is a very
considerable house particularly attached to the
army. One of our spies, a trusty one too, writes, the
31st of October, that the principal part of the sick
from the hospitals had embarked, but this stands
almost wholly upon its own bottom. The capture of
Jamaica seems to be a mere rumor. There are
several others respecting St. Kitts, Montserrat, and
Grenada. The two former are said to have been
taken by surprise on a temporary absence of their
guard-ships, but these stories were not improbably
suggested by a late sudden and very considerable rise
in the prices of rum and molasses. The former being
as high as fourteen or fifteen shillings per gallon.
Large purchases have been made of these articles as
sea stores for the troops, and the speculators in the
city have been bidding against the commissaries,
which better accounts for the increased prices.
It is a question very undecided in my mind whether
the enemy will evacuate or not. Reasoning a priori,
the arguments seem to be strongest for it — from the
exhausted state of the British resources, the naked
condition of their dominions everywhere, and the
possibility of a Spanish war. But, on the other
hand, naval superiority must do a great deal in
the business. This I think, considering all things,
156 Alexander Hamilton
me till two days ago. I am sorry that your business
does not seem to make so speedy a progress as we
all wish, but I hope it will soon come to a speedy
termination. I wish you to be in a situation to
employ yourself usefully and agreeably, and to con-
tribute to giving our military constitution that order
and perfection it certainly wants. I have not time
now to enter upon some matters which I shall take
another opportunity to give you my sentiments con-
cerning. I have read your letter to Lee with pleas-
ure. It was conceived in terms which the offence
merited, and if he had had any feeling, must have
been felt by him. Considering the pointedness and
severity of your expressions, his answer was certainly
a very modest one, and proved that he had not a
violent appetite for so close a tUe-a-tete as you seem
disposed to insist upon. This evasion, if known to
the world, would do him very little honor. I don't
know but I shall be shortly at Philadelphia, if so, I
shall have the honor of personally assuring you of the
perfect respect and esteem with which I am, etc.
NARRATIVE OF AN AFFAIR OF HONOR BETWEEN GEN-
ERAL LEE AND COL. LAURENS ■
24th December, 1778.
General Lee, attended by Major Edwards, and
Col. Laurens, attended by Col. Hamilton, met agree-
able to appointment on Wednesday afternoon at
half -past three in a wood situate near the four-mile
1 Colonel Laurens called Gen. Charles Lee out for using disrespectful
language about Washington after the battle of Monmouth.
Private Correspondence 157
stone on the Point-no-point road. Pistols having
been the weapons previously fixed upon, and the
combatants being provided with a brace each, it
was asked in what manner they were to proceed.
General Lee proposed to advance upon one another
and each fire at what time and distance he thought
proper. Col. Laurens expressed his preference of
this mode, and agreed to the proposal accordingly.
They approached each other within about five or
six paces and exchanged a shot almost at the same
moment. As Col. Laurens was preparing for a
second discharge, General Lee declared himself
wounded. Col. Laurens, as if apprehending the
wound to be more serious than it proved, advanced
towards the General to offer his support. The same
was done by Col. Hamilton and Major Edwards under
a similar apprehension. General Lee then said the
wound was inconsiderable — less than he had imagined
at the first stroke of the ball, and proposed to fire a
second time. This was warmly opposed both by
Col. Hamilton and Major Edwards, who declared it to
be their opinion, that the affair should terminate as
it then stood. But General Lee repeated his desire
that there should be a second discharge, and Col.
Laurens agreed to the proposal. Col. Hamilton ob-
served that unless the General was influenced by
motives of personal enmity, he did not think the
affair ought to be pursued any further; but as
General Lee seemed to persist in desiring it, he was
too tender of his friend's honor to persist in opposing
it. The combat was then going to be renewed; but
Major Edwards again declaring his opinion, that the
156 Alexander Hamilton
me till two days ago. I am sorry that your business
does not seem to make so speedy a progress as we
all wish, but I hope it will soon come to a speedy
termination. I wish you to be in a situation to
employ yourself usefully and agreeably, and to con-
tribute to giving our military constitution that order
and perfection it certainly wants. I have not time
now to enter upon some matters which I shall take
another opportunity to give you my sentiments con-
cerning. I have read your letter to Lee with pleas-
ure. It was conceived in terms which the offence
merited, and if he had had any feeling, must have
been felt by him. Considering the pointedness and
severity of your expressions, his answer was certainly
a very modest one, and proved that he had not a
violent appetite for so close a tUe-a-tete as you seem
disposed to insist upon. This evasion, if known to
the world, would do him very little honor. I don't
know but I shall be shortly at Philadelphia, if so, I
shall have the honor of personally assuring you of the
perfect respect and esteem with which I am, etc.
NARRATIVE OF AN AFFAIR OF HONOR BETWEEN GEN-
ERAL LEE AND COL. LAURENS '
24th December, 1778.
General Lee, attended by Major Edwards, and
Col. Laurens, attended by Col. Hamilton, met agree-
able to appointment on Wednesday afternoon at
half -past three in a wood situate near the four-mile
1 Colonel Laurens called Gen. Charles Lee out for using disrespectful
language about Washington after the battle of Monmouth.
Private Correspondence 157
stone on the Point-no-point road. Pistols having
been the weapons previously fixed upon, and the
combatants being provided with a brace each, it
was asked in what manner they were to proceed.
General Lee proposed to advance upon one another
and each fire at what time and distance he thought
proper. Col. Laurens expressed his preference of
this mode, and agreed to the proposal accordingly.
They approached each other within about five or
six paces and exchanged a shot almost at the same
moment. As Col. Laurens was preparing for a
second discharge, General Lee declared himself
wounded. Col. Laurens, as if apprehending the
wound to be more serious than it proved, advanced
towards the General to offer his support. The same
was done by Col. Hamilton and Major Edwards under
a similar apprehension. General Lee then said the
wound was inconsiderable — less than he had imagined
at the first stroke of the ball, and proposed to fire a
second time. This was warmly opposed both by
Col. Hamilton and Major Edwards, who declared it to
be their opinion, that the affair should terminate as
it then stood. But General Lee repeated his desire
that there should be a second discharge, and Col.
Laurens agreed to the proposal. Col. Hamilton ob-
served that unless the General was influenced by
motives of personal enmity, he did not think the
affair ought to be pursued any further; but as
General Lee seemed to persist in desiring it, he was
too tender of his friend's honor to persist in opposing
it. The combat was then going to be renewed; but
Major Edwards again declaring his opinion, that the
158 Alexander Hamilton
affair ought to end where it was, General Lee then
expressed his confidence in the honor of the gentle-
men concerned as seconds, and said he should be
willing to comply with whatever they should coolly
and deliberately determine. Col. Laurens consented
to the same.
Col. Hamilton and Major Edwards withdrew, and
conversing awhile on the subject, still concurred fully
in the opinion, that, for the most urgent reasons, the
affair should terminate as it was then circumstanced.
This decision was communicated to the parties and
agreed to by them, upon which they immediately re-
turned to town; General Lee slightly wounded in
the right side.
During the interview a conversation to the follow-
ing purport passed between General Lee and Col.
Laurens. On Col. Hamilton's intimating the idea of
personal enmity, as before mentioned, General Lee
declared he had none, and had only met Col. Laurens
to defend his own honor; that Mr. Laurens best
knew whether there was any on his part. Col.
Laurens replied, that General Lee was acquainted
with the motives that had brought him there, which
were that he had been informed, from what he
thought good authority, that General Lee had
spoken of General Washington in the grossest and
most opprobrious terms of personal abuse, which he,
Col. Laurens, thought himself bound to resent, as
well on account of the relation he bore to General
Washington, as from motives of personal friendship
and respect for his character. General Lee acknow-
ledged that he had given his opinion against General
Private Correspondence 159
Washington's military character to his particular
friends, and might perhaps do it again. He said
every man had a right to give his sentiments freely of
military characters, and that he did not think him-
self personally accountable to Col. Laurens for what
he had done in that respect. But he said he never
had spoken of General Washington in the terms
mentioned, which he could not have done, as well
because he had always esteemed General Washington
as a man, as because such abuse would be incom-
patible with the character he would ever wish to
sustain as a gentleman.
Upon the whole we think it a piece of justice to the
two gentlemen to declare, that after they met their
conduct was strongly marked with all the politeness,
generosity, coolness, and firmness that ought to
characterize a transaction of this nature.
Alex. Hamilton.
Ev. Edwards.
Philad., Decemr. 24, 1778.
TO THE HONORABLE JOHN JAY, PRESIDENT OF
CONGRESS
Headquarters, March 14, 1779.
Dear Sir:
Colonel Laurens, who will have the honor of de-
livering you this letter, is on his way to South
Carolina, on a project which I think, in the present
situation of affairs there, is a very good one, and
deserves every kind of support and encouragement.
This is to raise two, three, or four battalions of
negroes, with the assistance of the government of
160 Alexander Hamilton
that State, by contributions from the owners, in
proportion to the number they possess. If you
should think proper to enter upon the subject with
him, he will give you a detail of his plan. He wishes
to have it recommended by Congress to the State;
and, as an inducement, that they would engage to
take their battalions into Continental pay.
It appears to me that an expedient of this kind, in
the present state of Southern affairs, is the most
rational that can be adopted, and promises very
important advantages. Indeed, I hardly see how a
sufficient force can be collected in that quarter with-
out it; and the enemy's operations there are growing
infinitely serious and formidable. I have not the
least doubt that the negroes will make very excellent
soldiers, with proper management; and I will ven-
ture to pronounce, that they cannot be put in better
hands than those of Mr. Laurens. He has all the
zeal, intelligence, enterprise, and eve^y other qualifi-
cation requisite to succeed in such an undertaking.
It is a maxim with some great military judges, that,
with sensible officers, soldiers can hardly be too
stupid; and, on this principle, it is thought that the
Russians would make the best soldiers in the world,
if they were under other officers than their own. The
king of Prussia is among the number who maintains
this doctrine, and has a very emphatic saying on the
occasion, which I do not exactly recollect. I men-
tion this because I have frequently heard it objected
to the scheme of embodying negroes, that they are
too stupid to make soldiers. This is so far from
appearing to me a valid objection, that I think their
Private Correspondence 161
want of cultivation (for their natural faculties are as
good as ours), joined to that habit of subordination
which they acquire from a life of servitude, will
enable them sooner to become soldiers than our
white inhabitants. Let officers be men of sense and
sentiment; and the nearer the soldiers approach to
machines, perhaps the better.
I foresee that this project will have to combat
much opposition from prejudice and self-interest.
The contempt we have been taught to entertain for
the blacks, makes us fancy many things that are
founded neither in reason nor experience; and an
unwillingness to part with property of so valuable a
kind, will furnish a thousand arguments to show the
impracticability, or pernicious tendency, of a scheme
which requires such sacrifices. But it should be
considered, that if we do not make use of them in
this way, the enemy probably will ; and that the best
way to counteract the temptations they will hold
out, will be to offer them ourselves. An essential
part of the plan is to give them their freedom with
their swords. This will secure their fidelity, animate
their courage, and, I believe, will have a good in-
fluence upon those who remain, by opening a door to
their emancipation. This circumstance, I confess,
has no small weight in inducing me to wish the suc-
cess of the project; for the dictates of humanity,
and true policy, equally interest me in favor of this
unfortunate class of men.
While I am on the subject of Southern affairs, you
will excuse the liberty I take in saying, that I do not
think measures sufficiently vigorous are pursuing for
VOL, IX. — IX.
1 62 Alexander Hamilton
our defence in that quarter. Except the few regular
troops of South Carolina, we seem to be relying
wholly on the militia of that and the two neighboring
States. These will soon grow impatient of service,
and leave our affairs in a miserable situation. No
considerable force can be uniformly kept up by
militia; to say nothing of the many obvious and
well-known inconveniences that attend this kind of
troops. I would beg leave to suggest, sir, that no
time ought to be lost in making a draught of militia
to serve a twelvemonth, from the States of North
and South Carolina and Virginia. But South Caro-
lina, being very weak in her population of whites,
may be excused from the draught, on condition of
furnishing the black battalions. The two others
may furnish about three thousand five hundred men,
and be exempted, on that account, from sending any
succors to this army. The States to the northward
of Virginia will be fully able to give competent sup-
plies to the army here; and it will require all the
force and exertions of the three States I have men-
tioned to withstand the storm which has arisen and
is increasing in the South.
The troops draughted must be thrown into bat-
talions, and officered in the best possible manner.
The supernumerary officers may be made use of as
far as they will go. If arms are wanted for their
troops, and no better way of supplying them is to be
found, we should endeavor to levy a contribution
of arms upon the militia at large. Extraordinary
exigencies demand extraordinary means. I fear this
Southern business will become a very grave one.
Private Correspondence 163
TO MISS LIVINGSTON x
Headquarters, March 18, 1779.
I can hardly forgive an application to my humanity
to induce me to exert my influence in an affair in
which ladies are concerned, and especially when you
are of the party. Had you appealed to my friend-
ship or to my gallantry, it would have been irresisti-
ble. I should have thought myself bound to have
set prudence and policy at defiance, and even to
have attacked wind- mills in your ladyship's service.
I am not sure but my imagination would have gone
so far as to have fancied New York an enchanted
castle — the three ladies so many fair damsels rav-
ished from their friends and held in captivity by the
spells of some wicked magician — General Clinton, a
huge giant, placed as keeper of the gates — and my-
self, a valorous knight, destined to be their champion
and deliverer.
But when, instead of availing yourself of so much
better titles, you appealed to the cold, general princi-
ple of humanity, I confess I felt myself mortified, and
determined, by way of revenge, to mortify you in
turn. I resolved to show you that all the eloquence
of your fine pen could not tempt our Fabius to do
wrong ; and, avoiding any representation of my own,
I put your letter into his hands and let it speak for
itself. I knew, indeed, this would expose his resolu-
tion to a severer trial than it could experience in any
other way, and I was not without my fears for the
1 Miss Livingston was the daughter of Gov. Livingston, of New-
Jersey, and had asked Hamilton to procure a pass through the Ameri-
can lines for some friends living in New York.
1 64 Alexander Hamilton
event, but if it should decide against you, I antici-
pated the triumph of letting you see your influence
had failed. I congratulated myself on the success
of my scheme; for, though there was a harder
struggle upon the occasion between inclination and
duty, than it would be for his honor to tell; yet he
at last had the courage to determine that, as he could
not indulge the ladies with consistency and propriety,
he would not run the risk of being charged with a
breach of both. This he desired me to tell you,
though, to be sure, it was done in a different manner,
interlarded with many assurances of his great desire
to oblige you, and of his regret that he could not do
it in the present case, with a deal of stuff of the same
kind, which I have too good an opinion of your under-
standing to repeat. I shall, therefore, only tell you
that whether the Governor and the General are more
honest or more perverse than other people, they have
a very odd knack of thinking alike; and it happens
in the present case that they both equally disap-
prove the intercourse you mention, and have taken
pains to discourage it. I shall leave you to make
your own reflections upon this, with only one more
observation, which is that the ladies for whom you
apply would have every claim to be gratified, were
it not that it would operate as a bad precedent. But,
before I conclude, it will be necessary to explain one
point. This refusal supposes that the ladies mean
only to make a visit and return to New York. If it
should be their intention to remain with us, the case
will be altered. There will be no rule against their
coming out, and they will be an acquisition. But
Private Correspondence 165
this is subject to two provisos — 1st, that they are not
found guilty of treason or any misdemeanor punish-
able by the laws of the State, in which case the
General can have no power to protect them; and,
2dly, that the ladies on our side do not apprehend
any inconvenience from increasing their number.
Trifling apart, there is nothing could give me greater
pleasure than to have been able to serve Miss Living-
ston and her friends on this occasion, but circum-
stances really did not permit it. I am persuaded she
has too just an opinion of the General's politeness
not to be convinced that he would be happy to do
any thing which his public character would justify in
an affair so interesting to the tender feelings of so
many ladies. The delicacy of her own ideas will
easily comprehend the delicacy of his situation; —
she knows the esteem of her friend,
A. Hamilton.
The General and Mrs. Washington present their
compliments.1
TO BARON STEUBEN
May 26, 1779.
The General, on reflection, is a little uneasy about
the route you intend to take. He thinks it not
quite safe, as the enemy have troops on Long Island
and may easily throw a party across the Sound, so
that you would be in danger of having your agreeable
dreams interrupted, if you should sleep any where
from New Haven to Fairfield.
1 Reprinted from Sedgwick's Life of Win. Livingston, p. 320.
1 66 Alexander Hamilton
It is probable one of the Count's motives in coming
this way may be to see the ruins of those places ; and
if he could do it without risk, it would be desirable ;
but he would not probably be at his ease if in conse-
quence of it he should be obliged to attend the levee
of Sir Henry Clinton. This may happen if he con-
tinues his intention, unless very good precautions
are taken to avoid the danger. The General recom-
mends it to you at least to be very vigilant upon
your post, and not to suffer yourself to be surprised.
You will be so good as to let us have timely notice of
your approach, as we shall, at least, meet you at
Fishkill Landing with boats to take you down to
headquarters.
TO OTHO H. WILLIAMS *
June n, 1779.
Dear Williams :
The General sends you four fresh horsemen to en-
able you to transmit him intelligence. The General
will take the road you marched to your quarters.
Mind your eye, my dear boy, and if you have an
opportunity, fight hard.
TO MAJOR LEE OR, IN HIS ABSENCE, CAPT. McLANE
July, 1779.
Sir:
There is an encampment of the enemy, or a de-
monstration of one, which appears on the other side
1 Major Otho H. Williams, of Maryland, afterwards a brigadier-
general, and always a warm friend of Hamilton.
Private Correspondence 167
of the river, considerably on this side of Tarry town.
You will be pleased in consequence to have patrols
kept from this till morning seven or eight miles down
along the shore and on the roads leading to this
place on our right. This may be a critical night,
and demands the greatest vigilance.
TO COL. DAVID HENLEY ■
Headquarters, New Windsor, July 12, 1779.
Dear Sir:
I take the liberty to trouble you with a letter for
Mr. Dana, which I have left open for your perusal;
and I request it as a favor which I hope I may claim
from your friendship to deliver it to him and press
for a speedy answer. I think you sufficiently know
my character and way of thinking to be convinced
I could never have expressed sentiments of the kind
imputed to me; and you will therefore be the more
ready to afford me your good offices upon this occa-
sion. There is no other gentleman in Boston whose
friendship I could so far intrude upon.2
1 Colonel David Henley, a brave officer of the Revolutionary War.
This letter and certain others which follow relate to a remark attributed
to Hamilton by Doctor Gordon, the historian of the Revolution. The
most careful search has failed to discover the letters to Mr. Dana, but
the "Calumny" of Dr. Gordon is shown, by a letter to Laurens (Sept.
11, 1779), given below, page 173, to have been that he quoted Hamilton
as saying that he wished the people to rise, join General Washington,
and turn Congress out of doors. The letters are interesting, because
they are so extremely characteristic of the writer. The Mr. Dana re-
ferred to apparently was Francis Dana, of Massachusetts, afterwards a
Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and Commissioner
to France.
2 Now first printed from the Hamilton papers in the State Depart-
ment.
1 68 Alexander Hamilton
TO COL. JOHN BROOKS *
West Point, Aug. 6, 1779.
Dear Sir:
I enclose you the copy of a letter which I received
by the last post from Mr. Dana. You will perceive,
he says, he does not recollect or imagine that he
threw out the observation mentioned by you re-
specting the probability of my having made the de-
claration with which I am charged; but believes it
was used by some other person in company, and that
you had unintentionally blended the conversation.
As I am anxious to have this affair developed in all
its circumstances in a clear and unequivocal man-
ner, I request you will do me the favor to inform me
whether your memory in this particular is distinct
and positive, or whether it is probable you may have
committed the mistake which Mr. Dana supposes.
In the last case I shall be obliged to you to endeavor
to recollect the real author of the insinuation. Any
other remarks which Mr. Dana's statement of the
matter may appear to you to require will add to the
obligation you have already conferred on, sir, etc.
P. S. — I shall thank you for your answer to-mor-
row that I may have time to take the necessary
measures before the next post sets out.8
1 Colonel John Brooks, of Massachusetts, a gallant soldier of the
Revolution, Adjutant-General of the State during the War of 18 12 and
Governor from i8i6to 1823. The letter also relates to the affair with
Dr. Gordon.
2 Now first printed from the Hamilton papers in the State Depart-
ment.
Private Correspondence 169
TO DR. WILLIAM GORDON l
West Point, Aug. 10, 1779.
Sir:
You will find by the enclosed copy of a letter of
the 25th of July from Mr. Dana, that he mentions
you as his author for a charge of a very singular na-
ture, that has been brought against me, relative to
a declaration which I am said to have made in the
public coffee-house at Philadelphia. Conscious that
this charge is totally destitute of foundation, I owe
it to myself to investigate its source, and evince its
falsehood; and as I cannot but believe that you
have too great a regard to the interests of truth and
justice to withhold your aid in detecting the inventor
of a calumny, I persuade myself you will cheerfully
disclose the authority on which your information to
Mr. Dana was founded. This I now call for, and you
will no doubt consider it a duty as well to yourself
as to me, to give an immediate, direct, and explicit
answer; sensible that the least hesitation or reserve
may give room for conjectures which it can be neither
your wish nor mine to excite. Col. Henley will do
me the favor to receive and forward your letter.3
TO JAMES DUANE 3
August 28, 1779.
Dear Sir:
I with pleasure snatch a moment, agreeable to
your request, to inform you of the events which have
1 Dr. William Gordon, an English clergyman, who was in this country
during the Revolution and wrote a history of the war.
a Now first printed from the Hamilton papers in the State Depart-
ment.
3 The eminent patriot and lawyer of New York and a leader in
Congress.
170 Alexander Hamilton
taken place since you left us. A York paper of the
24th announces the arrival of the Russell of 74, which
parted three days before from Arbuthnot's fleet,
which was of course momently expected. Subse-
quent intelligence gives us the arrival of the whole
fleet. This comes through different channels, and
is believed; but we have no particulars. Wayne is
still safe.
Northern news says that Sir George Collier, having
appeared in Penobscot River, put our grand fleet to
the rout. They were run ashore, abandoned, and
burnt; the troops and seamen safe. Colonel Jack-
son's regiment, which had been sent as a reinforce-
ment, landed at Portsmouth. This account comes
in a letter from General Gates to Colonel Hay. To
counterbalance the bad in a degree, he tells me three
of our Continental frigates were arrived at Boston
with six sail out of ten of the Jamaica fleet, which
had fallen into their hands, containing five thousand
hogsheads of rum and sugar.
TO BARON STEUBEN
September, 1779.
Dear Baron:
I am at this moment honored with your letter of
the 30th ultimo, and have communicated that part
of it which concerns M. De la Luzerne " to the Gen-
eral ; agreeably to which we shall take our measures
on the reception of this private public gentleman.
We had prepared a party of cavalry to receive him
at Fishkill, on the supposition that he would set out
1 French Minister to the United States.
Private Correspondence 171
with an escort from Boston; but we have now sent
orders to the party immediately to take the route you
mention to Hartford, and there place themselves
under your orders.
The General requests you will make his respectful
compliments to your Chevalier, and gives you carte
blanche to say every handsome thing you think
proper in his name of the pleasure which this visit
will give him. I have no doubt that your portrait,
which appears to be executed en maitre, will be
found a just representation of the original; and if he
is as happy as his predecessor in gaining the esteem
and confidence of the men of this country, with so
many talents to conciliate the leaders, his ministry
will not be unsuccessful. I augur well for him.
Gen. Washington proposes to meet him as a private
gentleman at Fishkill.
TO JAMES DUANE
September 7, 1779.
My Dear Sir:
I this day received your letter of the 4th, with one
enclosed for Col. Washington, which was immedi-
ately forwarded. You do not mention the receipt
of a line from me, which I wrote several days since,
giving you an account of Arbuthnot's arrival.
The current of our intelligence makes the rein-
forcement with him amount to about three thousand,
mostly recruits, and in bad health; it is said some
preparations are making for an expedition, and
there are various conjectures about the object:
172 Alexander Hamilton
some point to the Southward; perhaps the true
destination is the West Indies. But, I confess, I
should not be surprised if the enemy should make a
further and vigorous attempt to gain possession of
two or three of the Southern States. If their affairs
are so desperate with respect to alliance as we are
told, the object of the war on their side, from con-
quest, must necessarily change to pacification. The
acquisition of two or three of the Southern States
would be a handsome counterpoise to their losses in
the Islands, and would enable them to negotiate
with the more credit and success the ensuing winter.
I am happy to have it in my power to gratify your
curiosity about the Western expedition with the
enclosed agreeable account. It is the substance of
a letter from General Sullivan of the 30th, extracted
at Col. Hay's request, for Mr. Lowdon's paper. The
facts are all true, though you will perceive I have
given it a few of the usual embellishments of a news-
paper paragraph. I have not specified the number
of Gen. Sullivan's wounded; they amount to thirty-
nine, among which are Major Titcomb and two other
officers. This is a pleasing and, I hope, decisive
event.
TO COLONEL JOHN BROOKS
Headquarters, Sept. 10, 1779.
Dear Sir:
I send you, merely by way of information, the copy
of a letter of the 25th of August which I yesterday
received from Mr. Dana. I have only to request
Private Correspondence 173
that you will be good enough to inform me of the
names of all the gentlemen that composed the com-
pany before which I had the honor of being exhibited
on the occasion in question.1
TO JOHN LAURENS a
West Point, Sept. n, 1779.
From the current of intelligence, an embarkation
is on foot at New York. A little time will develop
its destination. I hope it may disappoint my con-
jectures. The general opinion points to the West
Indies; and, upon the whole, I believe myself the
plan of Southern operations is too bold and enlarged
for the feeble, shivering, contracted councils of
Britain. The naval force that arrived under Ar-
buthnot, by the best intelligence, consists of two
ships-of-the-line, two fifty-gun, and two smaller frig-
ates. Some seamen — deserters — report that they
made at sea two detachments of troops: one for
Quebec, the other to Halifax — each under convoy
of a vessel of the line. If Arbuthnot goes to the
West Indies, Byron will still be inferior to D'Estaing,
to say nothing of the Spanish fleet in that quarter.
The troops and seamen arrived in a very sickly con-
dition.
1 Now first printed from the Hamilton papers in the State Depart-
ment.
3 Col. John Laurens, of South Carolina, whose name has already
occurred frequently in this correspondence, was the son of Henry
Laurens. He was a member of Washington's staff, and Hamilton's
most intimate friend. He was one of the most dashing and brilliant
of the youthful officers of the Revolution, and fell in a skirmish Aug.
27, 1782, when the war was nearly over. In 1780 he went to France as a
commissioner on the loan, and was in all ways one of the most promis-
ing men of the period.
174 Alexander Hamilton
We have just received an account that looks like
the approach of D'Estaing to our continent. A
vessel arrived at Boston mentions having parted
with him in lat. 250, long. 700; steering N. W., with
six thousand troops on board taken in at the Cape,
bound for Georgia, and afterwards northward. If
this should be true, you will probably hear of him
before this reaches you; but he may, perhaps, push
directly northward, to lay the axe to the root. This
will be a master-stroke, and fix D'Estaing 's char-
acter as a first-rate officer. The reduction of the
enemy's fleets and armies in America will make all
their islands fall of course, deprive them of supplies
from this continent, and enable us to second opera-
tions of the French with ample succors of provisions.
If he touches at Georgia for your relief, and continues
his progress northward, you, I know, will endeavor
to keep pace with him and make us happy again.
The lads all join me in embracing you most affection-
ately. Pray let me hear from you frequently, and
deal a little in military details, as you expect the
same from me. The Philadelphia papers will tell
you of a handsome stroke by Lee T on Powle's Hook.
Some folks in the Virginia line, jealous of his glory,
had the folly to get him arrested. He has been tried
and acquitted with the highest honor. Lee unfolds
himself more and more to be an officer of great ca-
pacity, and if he had not a little spice of the Julius
Caesar or Cromwell in him, he would be a very clever
fellow. Adieu.
Apropos, speaking of a Caesar and a Cromwell,
1 Henry Lee, of Virginia, "Light-Horse Harry."
Private Correspondence 175
don't you think the Cabal have reported that I de-
clared in a public house in Philadelphia that it was
high time for the people to rise, join General Wash-
ington, and turn Congress out of doors? I am run-
ning the rogues pretty hard. Dana was the first
mentioned to me. He has given up Dr. Gordon, of
Jamaica Plains. You well remember the old Jesuit.
He made us a visit at Fredericksburg, and is writing
the history of America. The proverb is verified, —
" There never was any mischief, but had a priest or a
woman at the bottom." I doubt not subornation
and every species of villainy will be made use of to
cover the villainy of the attack. I have written to
Gordon, and what do you think is his answer? — he
will give up his author if I will pledge my honor
" neither to give nor accept a challenge, to cause it to
be given or accepted, nor to engage in any encounter
that may produce a duel.,, Pleasant terms enough.
I am first to be calumniated, and then, if my calum-
niator takes it into his head, I am to bear a cudgelling
from him with Christian patience and forbearance;
for the terms required, if pursued to their conse-
quences, come to this. I have ridiculed the pro-
posal, and insisted on the author, on the principle
of unconditional submission. What the Doctor's
impudence will answer, I know not. But you who
know my sentiments will know how to join me in
despising these miserable detractors. On revising
my work, I find several strokes of the true schoolboy
sublime. Pray let them pass, and admire them if
you can.1
1 Reprinted from Moore's Memoir of Laurens, p. 154.
i76 Alexander Hamilton
TO JAMES DUANE
West Point, Sept. 14, 1779.
My Dear Sir:
I do not recollect whether I said any thing in my
last about the strength of the reinforcement with
Arbuthnot. All the accounts agree that it does not
exceed 3,000, mostly recruits, and in very bad health;
it is said more than a thousand died on the passage,
and a greater part of the remainder are journeying
fast to the other world. Disease prevails also in the
other parts of the army and among the inhabitants,
more than has been known at any time since the
enemy has been in possession of the city. They have
been of late making extensive preparations for em-
barking troops, and we have just received advice
that two German and one British regiment sailed
from New York on the 1 ith, under convoy of a sixty-
four. The rumors about the destination are various.
The West Indies, Georgia, Canada, are all talked of,
but the first with most confidence, and is no doubt
most probable. Our intelligence announces a con-
tinuance of the embarkation.
A vessel, lately arrived at Boston from the Cape,
reports that she sailed from that place in company
with Count D'Estaing, with twenty-five sail of the
line and some transports, containing 6,000 troops
taken in at the Cape, and bound first to Georgia and
afterwards farther northward. She parted with the
fleet in latitude 250, longitude 740. Two other ves-
sels, arrived at some place in Connecticut, pretend
that they parted with a French fleet of men-of-war
and transports, in the latitude of Bermuda, steering
Private Correspondence 177
for this coast. These concurrent accounts are not
entirely unworthy of attention, though I am not dis-
posed to give them entire credit.
The reduction of the enemy's fleets and armies in
this country would be the surest method to effect
the complete conquest of the Islands, and it would
be one of the most fatal strokes Great Britain could
receive. The stamina of their military establishment
are in this country. The ruin of this, and the cap-
ture of their seamen and ships, would be an irrecov-
erable loss. The West Indies would scarcely have
any further prospect of succor, and would be obliged
to submit to the power of France almost without re-
sistance, which might then operate at leisure, aided
by ample supplies from this continent, which I be-
lieve are the principal thing wanting.
These reasons may have induced the Count to
make us a visit during the season of inactivity in the
West Indies; or, if he does not come himself, if by
forming a junction with the Spanish fleet he can
make a detachment this way, and still maintain a
superiority for operation in that quarter, this per-
haps will make the event more probable than on the
former supposition. I have now given you all the
intelligence we have, and have mixed certainties,
rumors, and conjectures. You will extract and be-
lieve as much as you think proper.
The General and family charge me to present their
most affectionate respects. We are to receive the
new minister to-morrow morning.
vol. ix.— ia.
178 Alexander Hamilton
TO JAMES DUANE
October i, 1779.
I am much obliged to you, my dear sir, for your
two letters of the 16th and 23d. In haste I snatch
up my pen by an express going off to the Governor,
to give you the news as it runs. The most important
and best authenticated is, that Count D'Estaing has
arrived on the coast of Georgia. The tale runs thus :
We are in possession of a Charleston paper of the 6th
of September, which mentions that the Viscount de
Fontanges ■ had arrived at that place, sent by the
Count to announce his approach. Mr. Mitchel, who
transmits the paper, adds that by the express which
brought it Mr. Gerard 2 had received dispatches
from the Count informing him of his intention to
attack the enemy in Georgia on the 9th; that in
consequence of this intelligence Mr. Gerard had post-
poned his voyage a few days to be the bearer of the
event. This, I hope, puts a period to the danger of
the Southern States, for which I could not help hav-
ing strong apprehensions, notwithstanding the pre-
sumption drawn from the enemies' past folly against
their pursuing any plan favorable to their interest.
I acknowledge the force of the argument, but I was
afraid they might for once blunder upon the right
way. The departure of Cornwallis on the 25th,
with the grenadiers, light infantry, and one British
regiment, had increased my horrors on this subject.
The nature of this corps pointed to a temporary
service for some important coup de main, Charleston
1 Adjutant-General of the French army.
2 The French Minister.
Private Correspondence 179
presented itself as the only object. They would
hardly separate the flower of their troops for any
remote and permanent station. They are continu-
ing their embarkation. The accounts we have of
the particular corps carry them to between five and
six thousand. I send you a Boston paper of the
23d containing some interesting European advices.
P. S. — The General is happy in the hopes you give
him of a speedy visit from General Schuyler and
yourself, and orders me to present his respects to
both. The family join in every sentiment of perfect
esteem.
DU PORTAIL AND HAMILTON TO WASHINGTON ■
Great Egg Harbor Landing, Oct. 26, 1779.
Sir:
We are honored with two letters from your Ex-
cellency of the 10th and 21st, to the contents of
which we beg leave to assure you of our strictest
attention.
That of the 18th has not yet come to hand. It is
not improbable it has gone round by Lewistown, which
has occasioned the delay.
Colonel Hamilton wrote to your Excellency from
Philadelphia, acquainting you with our arrival there
and our intention to proceed to Lewistown, Cape
1 Hamilton and General Du Portailwere sent by Washington to meet
the Count D'Estaing on his way up the coast with the French fleet and
arrange for his cooperation with our forces. Leb6gue Du Portail,
general in the French army, came to the United States with Lafayette,
and was a valued officer. After the revolution began in France he was
made minister of War by Lafayette's influence, and fell with the latter.
He remained long in hiding and finally escaped to America, and died
at sea on his way back to France after the 18th Brumaire.
180 Alexander Hamilton
Henlopen, and from Great Egg Harbor, communi-
cating our progress since, and our determination to
establish ourselves at Batsto Furnace. We have
since fixed on this place, about forty-four miles from
the extremity of Cape May (eighteen miles short of
the Furnace, which we found to be more remote than
had been represented), and, as far as we have been
able to learn, from one hundred to one hundred and
ten miles from Sandy Hook, and about fifty from
Philadelphia. Your Excellency will easily perceive
the reason of our choosing this station. It did not
appear to us, from our inquiries in Philadelphia, to
be a point well ascertained that the fleet would stop
at the Delaware, and the time which had elapsed
made it more possible, if the Count should be deter-
mined to prosecute any further operations on the
Continent, that he would not lose time by a pro-
cedure of this sort, but might content himself with
sending some transports, under escort of a few frig-
ates, to receive the provisions for the fleet, and
proceed himself directly on to the Hook. On this
supposition our position at Lewistown was entirely
ineligible. The distance at which we were from the
city as well as from the Hook, the delays that would
consequently attend our intelligence from every
quarter, the difficulty and impossibility, sometimes,
of traversing the bay, made our first situation incon-
venient in every respect in the event of the fleet's
proceeding immediately to the Hook. These con-
siderations induced us to cross the Delaware and
take the position at which we now are, where, or in
the vicinity, we propose to remain till the arrival of
Private Correspondence 181
the Count, till intelligence from him decides the in-
utility of a longer stay, or till we receive your Ex-
cellency's orders of recall.
We have now a better relation to the different
points in which we are interested, and have taken
the necessary precautions to gain the earliest no-
tice of whatever happens. We have stationed ex-
presses at the pitch of the Cape, and have established
a regular communication with Major Lee, and with
the city. If the fleet should appear off the Dela-
ware, we can be there in twelve hours after its first
appearance; and if at the Hook, in less than four
days ; provided Major Lee is punctual in conveying
the intelligence, and the expresses from either side,
in bringing it.
By recent information from Philadelphia (though
not quite so distinct and accurate as we could wish),
we find, that so late as the fourth of this month, the
Count, as yet, was to open his batteries against the
enemy at Savannah. The time that will probably
intervene between this and the final reduction, the
re-embarkation of the Count's troops, the disposi-
tions for sailing, and his arrival on this coast, may,
we fear, exhaust the season too much to permit of
the co-operation to which our mission relates.
We do not, however, despair; for if the Count has
been fully successful to the southward, and should
shortly arrive (which may be the case), the enter-
prise may possibly go on.1
1 The attack upon Savannah was made on Oct. 9th. The assault
was a gallant one, but the combined French and American forces were
repulsed by the British with heavy losses.
1 82 Alexander Hamilton
In a letter from Major Lee, of the 2 2d, he informs
us, that a vessel from Georgia arrived on the 16th;
since which the two sixty-fours, and the Renown,
which were at the Hook, had fallen down towards
New York; and the troops at the Hook had em-
barked and gone to the city. At first sight, this ac-
count alarmed us, and made us apprehensive that
the enemy had received some favorable advices from
the southward which put them out of danger, and
superseded the necessity of continuing their pre-
parations for defence. But, on further reflection,
we think it more probable, that this is only a change
of disposition; and that finding, on closer examina-
tion, they would be unable to defend the Hook, they
had determined to relinquish the attempt.
This seems the more likely, as Major Lee mentions,
that a part of the hulks, sunk in the channel, had
gotten afloat and drifted ashore.
To this experience of the difficulty of obstructing
the channel, may, perhaps, be attributed the change
we suppose. And we are confirmed in this conjec-
ture, by the evacuation of the two posts at King's
Ferry, which appears by your Excellency's letter to
have taken place on the 21st, five days after the sup-
posed arrival of the vessel from Georgia; a proof
that they had not received information of any de-
cisive good fortune on their side, or ill fortune on
ours ; and that they persisted in their defensive plan.
We are persuaded, too, that their exultation would
have given wings to any good news they might
have received, and that it would have reached us
before this. Were the season less advanced, we
Private Correspondence 183
should regret the change of disposition; because we
believe the attempt to defend the entrance of the
Hook would have been fruitless ; and it might have
thrown a part of their ships and of their troops into
our hands, in the first instance, which could not fail
to facilitate the successive operations.
But, at this late period, it may rather be an ad-
vantage. To force the passage might have required
land operations against the Hook, which would lose
time and expose the fleet to the hazard of winds,
which would have rendered its situation critical.
Now, the fleet may probably enter the bay, on its
first approach, and be in security; and the whole
operation will be brought to a point, and may de-
mand less time for its accomplishment.
As a large number of fascines, ready for use, ap-
pear to us essential to any operations that may be
undertaken, we presume your Excellency has been
preparing, and will continue to prepare, as many as
possible. We beg leave to suggest the utility of
having, at the same time, a sufficient number of ga-
bions and sand bags. Of the former, Colonel Gou-
vion,1 if your Excellency thinks proper, may be
charged with the constructing: the latter may be
made under the care of the Quarter-Master at Phila-
delphia. Several thousands may be necessary. The
usual dimensions are fifteen or eighteen inches long,
and twelve wide. If, notwithstanding the advices
from Major Lee, any thing by land is to be attempted
1 Jean Baptiste Gouvion, captain in the French army and major-
general of the National Guard in 1789 He was killed before Mau-
beuge in 1792.
184 Alexander Hamilton
against the Hook, these will be peculiarly useful on
such a flat, sandy spot; and, indeed, it would be im-
practicable to construct batteries, in any reasonable
time, without them.
TO JOHN LAURENS
December, 1779.
Cold in my professions, warm in my friendships,
I wish, my dear Laurens, it may be in my power, by
actions rather than words, to convince you that I
love you. I shall only tell you that, till you bade us
adieu, I hardly knew the value you had taught my
heart to set upon you. Indeed, my friend, it was
not well done. You know the opinion I entertain of
mankind, and how much it is my desire to preserve
myself free from particular attachments, and to keep
my happiness independent of the caprices of others.
You should not have taken advantage of my sensi-
bility to steal into my affections without my consent.
But as you have done it and as we are generally
indulgent to those we love, I shall not scruple to par-
don the fraud you have committed, on one condition :
that for my sake, if not for your own, you will always
continue to merit the partiality, which you have so
artfully instilled into me.
I have received your two letters : one from Phila-
delphia, the other from Chester. I am pleased with
your success, so far — and I hope the favorable omens
that precede your application to the Assembly may
have as favorable an issue — provided the situation
of affairs should require it, which I fear will be the
case. But both for your country's sake and for my
Private Correspondence 185
own, I wish the enemy may be gone from Georgia
before you arrive, and that you may be obliged to
return and share the fortunes of your old friends.
In respect to the commission which you received
from Congress, all the world must think your con-
duct perfectly right. Indeed, your ideas on this oc-
casion seem not to have their wonted accuracy ; and
you have had scruples, in a great measure, without
foundation. By your appointment as aide-de-camp
to the commander-in-chief, you had as much the
rank of lieutenant-colonel as any officer in the line.
Your receiving a commission as lieutenant-colonel,
from the date of that appointment, does not in the
least injure or interfere with one of them ; unless by
virtue of it you are introduced into a particular
regiment in violation of the right of succession, which
is not the case at present, neither is it a necessary
consequence. As you were going to command a
battalion, it was proper that you should have a com-
mission; and if this commission had been dated
posterior to your appointment as aide-de-camp, I
should have considered it derogatory to your former
rank, to mine, and to that of the whole corps. The
only thing I see wrong in the affair is this — Congress
by their conduct, both on the former and present
occasion, appear to have intended to confer a privi-
lege, an honor, a mark of distinction, a something
upon you, which they withheld from other gentle-
men in the family. This carries with it an air of
preference, which, though we can all truly say, we
love your character and admire your military merit,
cannot fail to give some of us uneasy sensations. But
1 86 Alexander Hamilton
in this, my dear, I wish you to understand me well.
The blame, if there is any, falls wholly upon Con-
gress. I repeat it, your conduct has been perfectly
right, and even laudable. You rejected the offer
when you ought to have rejected it; and you ac-
cepted it when you ought to have accepted it, and,
let me add, with a degree of over-scrupulous delicacy.
It was necessary to your project. Your project was
the public good; and I should have done the same.
In hesitating, you have refined on the refinements of
generosity.
There is a total stagnation of news here, political
and military. Gates has refused the Indian com-
mand. Sullivan is come to take it. The former has
lately given a fresh proof of his impudence, his folly,
and his rascality. 'T is no great matter; but a pe-
culiarity in the case prevents my saying what.
1 I anticipate by sympathy the pleasure you must
feel from the sweet converse of your dearer self in
the enclosed letters. I hope they may be recent.
They were brought out of New York by General
Thompson, delivered to him there by a Mrs. Moore,
not long from England, sot disante parente de madame
votre ipouse. She speaks of a daughter of yours, —
well, when she left England, and now, my dear, as
we are upon the subject of wife, I empower and com-
mand you to get me one in Carolina. Such a wife as
I want will, I know, be difficult to be found, but if
you succeed, it will be the stronger proof of your
1 This passage beginning " I anticipate" and extending as far as the
postscript, is now first printed from the Hamilton papers in the State
Department.
Private Correspondence 187
zeal and dexterity. Take her description — she must
be young, handsome (I lay most stress upon a good
shape), sensible (a little learning will do), well bred
(but she must have an aversion to the word ton),
chaste, and tender (I am an enthusiast in my notions
of fidelity and fondness), of some good nature, a
great deal of generosity (she must neither love
money nor scolding, for I dislike equally a termagant
and an economist). In politics I am indifferent
what side she may be of. I think I have arguments
that will easily convert her to mine. As to religion
a moderate stock will satisfy me. She must believe
in God and hate a saint.
But as to fortune, the larger stock of that the
better. You know my temper and circumstances
and will therefore pay special attention in the
treaty. Though I run no risk of going to Purgatory
for my avarice, yet as money is an essential ingre-
dient to happiness in this world, as I have not much
of my own, and as I am very little calculated to get
more either by my address or industry, it must needs
be that my wife, if I get one, bring at least a suffi-
ciency to administer to her own extravagancies.
N. B. — You will be pleased to recollect in your ne-
gotiations that I have no invincible antipathy to
the maidenly beauties, and that I am willing to take
the trouble of them upon myself.
If you should not readily meet with a lady that
you think answers my description, you can only ad-
vertise in the public papers, and doubtless you will
hear of many competitors for most of the qualifica-
tions required, who will be glad to become candidates
1 88 Alexander Hamilton
for such a prize as I am. To excite their emulations
it will be necessary for you to give an account of the
lover — his size, make, qualities of mind and body,
achievements, expectations, fortune, etc. In draw-
ing my picture you will no doubt be civil to your
friend, mind you do justice to the length of my nose,
and don't forget that I
After reviewing what I have written, I am ready
to ask myself what could have put it into my head
to hazard this jeti de folte. Do I want a wife? No.
I have plagues enough without desiring to add to the
number that greatest of all ; and if I were silly enough
to do it I should take care how I employed a proxy.
Did I mean to show my wit? If I did, I am sure I
have missed my aim. Did I only intend to frisk?
In this I have succeeded, but I have done more. I
have gratified my feelings, by lengthening out the
only kind of intercourse now in my power, with my
friend.
P. S. — Fleury shall be taken care of. All the
family send their love. In this join the General and
Mrs. Washington; and what is best, it is not in the
style of ceremony but sincerity.
TO DOCTOR WILLIAM GORDON
December 10, 1779.
Sir:
As your letter of the 23d of September offered
nothing conclusive, I delayed acknowledging it till
I should receive the result of your pretended ap-
plication to your informer. This is contained in
your last of the 15th of November, which arrived
Private Correspondence 189
while I was absent from headquarters. The un-
ravelment of the plot in the ridiculous farce you have
been acting, proves, as I at first suspected, that you
are yourself the author of the calumny. Such I con-
sider you, and such I shall represent you. The re-
presentation, I am sure, will find credit with all who
know me, and the notorious bias of your disposition
to duplicity and slander will give it sanction with all
who are acquainted with you. I shall use the less
ceremony, as I am well informed you have established
a character which, in the opinion of every man of
sense, has forfeited all title to the delicacy of treat-
ment usually attached to your function. I only
lament that respect to myself obliges me to confine
the expression of my contempt to words.
The feint you make of involving Congress in a
business little worthy of their attention, I regard as
a mere trick to elude my demands for a discovery
which you are unable to make. And, as I have no
hope of bringing the affair to a more satisfactory
issue, I now put an end to the correspondence on my
part, and shall only add a repetition of what I before
said, that I have no objection to any part of my con-
duct being canvassed before any tribunal whatever.1
TO WASHINGTON
Morristown May 2, 1780.
Dear Sir:
I am extremely sorry your Excellency has been
troubled with the affair to which the papers trans-
1 Now first printed from the Hamilton papers in the State Depart-
ment.
i9° Alexander Hamilton
mitted in your letter of this morning relate. Ad-
mitting the possibility of Doctor Gordon's not being
the author of what I must always call a calumny,
and had he not been an irreconcilable enemy to
plain dealing, the matter might have been brought
to a very easy issue without the necessity of an
appeal to you. My determination, however, on the
contents of his letter will be a very summary one. I
shall not follow him in his labored digressions, be-
cause the scope of some of them is to me unintelli-
gible, and the rest do not merit an answer.
So far from being disposed to comply with the
Doctor's conditions to avoid an inquiry, I consider
the proposal he makes as a finishing stroke to that
display of absurdity, littleness, and effrontery which
characterizes the whole proceeding on his part, and
I defy the utmost extent of his malignity and in-
trigue. I shall ever continue to hold him in the
highest contempt, — to believe him to be the con-
niver of the charge against me till he gives up some
other person as the author, and to represent him as
such to all those with whom I have occasion to con-
verse on the subject. I shall always speak of him
in those terms which a sense of injury and a con-
viction of his worthlessness dictate.
I hope your Excellency will excuse the asperity of
my expressions, which my respect for you would in-
duce me to suppress, did I not owe it to my sensi-
bility, wounded by the most barbarous attack upon
my reputation and principles, to speak without re-
serve. I flatter myself you, sir, are too well ac-
quainted with my way of thinking to entertain the
Private Correspondence 191
least doubt of my innocence, and I beg leave to as-
sure you that nothing will give me greater pleasure
than to have the matter properly investigated.
I am only apprehensive that the Doctor will so
manage it as that it will be found inexpedient to bring
it to a public discussion, and that the knowledge of
circumstances will be confined to a few, to be handed
about as may best suit his purposes, to the prejudice
of my character. Your Excellency, too, I trust, will
see the propriety of that delicacy by which I am with-
held from making any formal appeal to public au-
thority in my own justification. T is the business
of my accuser to bring me to justice, and, by antici-
pating him, I should not fail to incur the imputation
of self-importance. I return your Excellency the
papers from Doctor Gordon.1
TO BARON STEUBEN
May 10, 1780.
Dear Baron:
General Knox, in conversation, has observed to
the General, that instead of sending to Philadelphia
for the fifteen hundred arms mentioned in your letter
of the sixth, and sending those here to that place to
be fitted, it would be a great saving of expense, in
the article of transportation, to have the bayonets
and accoutrements brought on without the arms,
and fitted to those now here; which can be easily
done at the Park. The question is, if the arms here
1 Now first printed from the Hamilton papers. It does not appear
that Dr. Gordon ever brought the matter to the notice of the authorities
of the State.
192 Alexander Hamilton
have no other defect than want of bayonets. The
General will be glad to know what you think of Gen-
eral Knox's proposal. It seems to him eligible, unless
there are reasons he is not acquainted with.
If there are any other articles you wish to have
sent for (the General thinks you mentioned some-
thing of the kind to him), he will be glad to know
what they are.
We have heard from the Marquis. He will be
here at dinner. Will you dine with us also? The
General requests it.
TO JAMES DUANE
May 14, 1780.
My Dear Sir:
This will be handed you by the Marquis (de Lafay-
ette), who brings us very important intelligence.
The General communicates the substance of it in a
private letter to you, and proposes a measure which
all deem essential.1 For God's sake, my dear sir,
engage Congress to adopt it, and come to a speedy
decision. We have not a moment to lose. Were
we to improve every instant of the interval, we
should have too little time for what we have to do.
The expected succor may arrive in the beginning
of June; in all probability it will not be later than
the middle. In the last case we have not a month
1 Writings of Washington, vii., 32. Lafayette brought news of the
coming of the French fleet with the army of Rochambeau. The
measure urged by Washington was the appointment of a committee by
Congress with full powers to raise men and supplies and to arrange for
cooperation with the French. A committee was raised as Washington
suggested, and consisted of Philip Schuyler, John Mathews, and
Nathaniel Peabody.
Private Correspondence 193
to make our preparations in, and in this short pe-
riod we must collect men, form magazines, and do
a thousand things of as much difficulty as im-
portance. The propriety of the measure proposed
is so obvious that an hour ought to decide it, and
if any new members are to come, they ought to set
out instantly with all expedition for headquarters.
Allow me, my dear sir, to give you a hint. The
General will often be glad to consult the committee
on particular points, but it will be inexpedient that
he should be obliged to do it oftener than he thinks
proper, or any peculiar case may require. Their
powers should be formed accordingly. It is the
essence of many military operations, that they
should be trusted to as few as possible.
The Marquis has a title to all the love of all Amer-
ica ; but you know he has a thousand little whims to
satisfy ; one of these he will have me to write to some
friend in Congress about. He is desirous of having
the captain of the frigate in which he came compli-
mented; and gives several pretty instances of his
punctuality and disinterestedness. He wishes Con-
gress to pass some resolutions of thanks, and to
recommend him to their minister in France, to be
recommended to the French court. The first of these
is practicable. The last I think might have an offi-
cious appearance. The essential services the Mar-
quis has rendered America in France give him a
claim for all that can be done with propriety; but
Congress must not commit themselves.
Again, my dear sir, I must entreat you to use the
spur on the present occasion. The fate of America
VOL. IX.— 13.
194 Alexander Hamilton
is perhaps suspended on the issue; if we are found
unprepared, it must disgrace us in the eyes of all
Europe, besides defeating the good intentions of our
allies, and losing the happiest opportunity we ever
have had to save ourselves.
TO GENERAL GREENE
May 16, 1780.
My Dear General:
When you ask my opinion as a friend, I must
always act the part of a true friend, however fre-
quently the advice I give may happen to clash with
your feelings, justly irritated by injuries which you
have not merited. Considering the Board of Treas-
ury as so many individuals, the complexion of their
letter to you would abundantly justify the asperity
of your reply ; but considering them as a public body,
one of the first in the State, policy pronounces it to be
too great. We are entered deeply in a contest on
which our all depends. We must endeavor to rub
through it, sometimes even at the expense of our
feelings. The treasury will always be essential to
your department. The board conducting it will
necessarily have no small influence. You may con-
tinue at the head of the department. I should think
it imprudent to push differences to extremity, or to
convert the airs of official consequence and the tem-
porary work of popular prejudice into rooted per-
sonal resentments. This appears to me to be the
tendency of the present letter. The board, from the
necessity of our affairs, may sue for peace, but they
Private Correspondence 195
will hate you for the humiliation you bring upon
them; and they may have it in their power to em-
barrass your operations. I would have you show a
sensibility of injury, but I would wish you to do it in
milder terms.1
TO BARON STEUBEN
June 7, 1780.
Dear Baron:
I am commanded by the General to inform you
that the enemy are out in considerable force, and, by
the last advice, were advancing this way. We are
going to meet them. The General is just set out
for Chatham, and will be happy to meet you there.
TO WASHINGTON
June 8, 1780.
Sir:
I have seen the enemy. Those in view I calculate
at about three thousand; there may be, and prob-
ably enough are, others out of sight. They have
sent all their horse to the other side, except about
fifty or sixty. Their baggage, it is agreed on all
hands, has also been sent across, and their wounded.
It is not ascertained that any of their infantry have
passed to the other side. There are four or five
1 This letter is reprinted from Geo. W. Greene's Life of General
Greene, ii., p. 287; it is also given in the History of the Republic, ii., 4.
The Treasury Board had written to Greene, who was at that time
quartermaster-general, in terms implying a doubt of his integrity. He
was naturally much incensed, and wrote a reply, which he sub-
mitted to Hamilton, who wrote this letter in response. Greene pro-
fessed himself unable to adopt a milder tone, but consulted Hamilton
as to another draft. The date is that given by Mr. Greene.
i96 Alexander Hamilton
hundred on the opposite point, but it is uncertain
whether they are those who went from this side, or
those who were on Staten Island; I rather suppose
the former.
Different conjectures may be made. The present
movement may be calculated to draw us down and
betray us into an action. They may have desisted
from their intention of passing till night, for fear of
our falling upon their rear. I believe this is the case ;
for, as they have but few boats, it would certainly
be a delicate manoeuvre to cross in our face. We
are taking measures to watch their motions to-night
as closely as possible. An incessant but very light
skirmishing. Very few boats, not more than enough
to carry three or four hundred men at a time; it is
likely more will come down this evening.
TO THE CHEVALIER DE TERNAY x
Au Cap Henry, le 13 Juin, 1780.
Monsieur Le Chevalier:
Je suis envoye* par le G6neral Washington au Cap
Henry pour y attendre votre escadre,et vous remettre
ainsi qu' a Monsieur le Comte de Rochambeau, les
depeches de Monsieur le Marquis de Lafayette. Ces
depeches, Monsieur le Chevalier, contiennent le plan
d 'operations que le General Washington a l'honneur
de vous proposer, la situation des ennemies, et la
ndtre relativement aux forces respectives des deux
1 Charles Louis d'Arsac de Ternay, admiral and commander of the
fleet that brought Rochambeau and his army to America. He reached
Newport with his fleet July 10, 1780, and died there on December 15th
of the same year, in the fifty-ninth year of his age.
Private Correspondence 197
parties, aux points occup£s, aux moyens de subsist-
ence et cetera; tous les changemens qui pouvaient
survenir surces objets doivent m'e'tre communiques,
afin qu' a votre arrived vous puissiez avoir sous les
yeux le plus de donn^es possibles. Les monies
details vous attendent a Rhode Island, et si vous ne
devez les recevoir qu' apres itre arrive\ il est presque
indifferent, Monsieur le Chevalier, que votre escadre
atterisse a Rhode Island ou au Cap Henry; mais
il y a des circonstances qui, si elles vous etaient con-
nues, tendraient peut etre a vous determiner plustot
pour l'un de ces points que pour l'autre, ou meme
pour un troisieme point que vos instructions n'ont pu
preVoir. C'est pour vous rendre compte de ces cir-
constances que je saisis 1 'occasion du fier Rodrique;
heureux si, dans une conjoncture ou les moments
sont d'une si grande importance, cette lettre peut
anticiper de quelques jours vos dispositions.
i°. Par le plan propose" a vous, Monsieur le Che-
valier, et a Monsieur le Comte de Rochambeau, les
efforts combines de l'arm6e Francaise et Americaine
doivent se porter sur New York, et vous £tes instam-
ment pri6 de vous rendre imm6diatement a Sandy
Hook.
20. Suivant les informations qui m'ont ete r£cem-
ment fournies par le Gouverneur de la Virginie, la
ville de Charleston est prise ; les ennemis embarquent
une partie des troupes qui en ont fait la conqu^te, et
d'apres la certitude ou nous sommes que la destina-
tion de votre escadre leur est connue, il semble que
cet embarquement pourrait bien avoir pour objet de
renforcer la garnison New York.
*98 Alexander Hamilton
30. La somme de leurs forces navales sur ce conti-
nent se borne k trois vaisseaux de ligne, un de 50
canons, deux de 44, et quelques fregates k Charles-
ton; un vaisseau de 74 et quelques frigates, sortis de
New York depuis trois semaines et dont nous igno-
rons la destination.
Ainsi, Monsieur le Chevalier, la premiere de ces
considerations vous invite k Sandy Hook ; la seconde
reclame votre atterrage sur un point d'ou vous puis-
siez £tre en mesure d'intercepter les secours destines
pour New York ; et la troisieme vous offre un terme
de comparaison entre la plus grande force qui puisse
escorter ces secours, et cette avec laquelle vous pou-
vez les attaquer. II est enclore k observer qu'
excepts les trois vaisseaux de ligne, tous les autres
(k Charleston) sont dans le port, et que les plus gros
n'en peuvent sortir, qu'aprks avoir 6t6 all£g£s, et
avec la concurrence d'une haute marr£e et d'un vent
propice.
Telles sont, Monsieur le Chevalier, les choses dont
ma mission a pour objet de vous rendre compte, et
comme il est de toute importance que ces informa-
tions vous parviennent le plus tdt possible, j'ai cru
ne pas devoir n6gliger la probability, qui s 'off re de
les faire d6vancer votre arriv^e.
En supposant, Monsieur le Chevalier, que le fier
Rodrique vous rencontre et que vous jugiez k propos
de vous rendre en droiture k Sandy Hook, il est un
moyen de faire que les d£p£ches qui vous attendant
k Rhode Island et du Cap Henry vous parviennent
aussi promptement qui si vous aviez atterri k Tun
de ces deux points: ce serait de d£p£cher, vers Tun
Private Correspondence 199
ou l'autre, Tun de vos plus legers vaisseaux qui re-
cevrait a son bord l'officier charge* de ces depeches,
et vous irait rejoindre vers Sandy Hook, ou vraisem-
blablement il se rendrait aussitot que votre fiotte, ou
du moins beaucoup plustot que les reponses de G6n-
£ral Washington ou de Monsieur le Marquis de
Lafayette, aux lettres qui leur annonceraient votre
arrivee.
Si le Cap Henry etait le point choisi, j'oserais vous
prier, Monsieur le Chevalier, afin d'eviter tous delais,
d'ordonner qu'a la vue, du signal que vous savez, le
vaisseau y reponde par un signal contraire, je veux
dire en avertissant la position des pavilions: qu'il
envoie sa chaloupe a terre avec un officier muni des
mots de reconnaissance ; que cet officier me donne la
premiere partie de ces mots et recoive de moi la
seconde. Par Ik je crois, Monsieur le Chevalier, que
toute possibility de surprise est sauvee, de part et
d 'autre, sans qu'il y ait un seul instant de perdre par
le ceremonial de la reconnaissance.
TO BARON STEUBEN
Whippany, June 25, 1780.
Dear Baron:
The enemy, the day before yesterday, made a for-
ward movement to Springfield, which they burnt,
and retired to Elizabethtown Point. The same even-
ing they crossed over to Staten Island, and there
are a great many concurring circumstances which
make it probable we shall next hear of them on the
North River. As you are at West Point the General
200 Alexander Hamilton
wishes you to remain there until the present appear-
ances come to some result. He has confidence in
your judgment, and wishes you to give your advice
and assistance to the commanding officer. As you
have no command in the post you can only do this
in a private, friendly way; but I dare say General
Howe will be happy to consult you. You will con-
sider this as a private letter, in which I rather con-
vey you the General's wishes than his commands.
All the army is in march toward you, and will be
at Pompton this evening.
TO BARON STEUBEN.
Headquarters, Ramapo, June 30, 1780.
Agreeably to your request, my dear Baron, I com-
municated your project to the General. Happily
the inactivity of the enemy has given us time to
make dispositions which render the calling out of the
militia unnecessary, and the whole has been accord-
ingly countermanded.
The General requests that when you have com-
pleted the object of your errand in your department,
and put things in train, you will rejoin the army.
I wrote you a line from Whippany, of which you
made no mention.
TO GENERAL ANTHONY WAYNE
July 6, 1780.
Dear General:
Doctor W. Mendy is one of those characters that
for its honesty, simplicity, and helplessness interests
Private Correspondence 201
my humanity. He is exceedingly anxious to be in
the service, and, I believe, has been forced out of it
not altogether by fair play. He is just what I should
like for a military parson, except that he does not
drink. He will fight, and he will not insist upon
your going to heaven whether you will or not. He
tells me there is a vacancy in your brigade. I should
be really happy if, through your influence, he can
fill it. Pray take care of the good old man.1
TO BARON STEUBEN
Headquarters, July 23, 1780.
I have received, my dear Baron, your two letters
of the sixteenth and eighteenth. On the formation
of the light infantry, the General has already written
to you. I presume it will be, ultimately, nearly as
you have proposed.
Smith set out some days since to join you. Brad-
ford, I am told, is undecided about entering into the
office. Col. Scammel has promised to bring him to
me, and if he accepts, we will forward him. I be-
lieve Prescott will be appointed in the light infantry.
Entre nous, 't is not easy to find good majors for this
corps in the Massachusetts Line, and as it will act a
good deal with the French troops, we wish it (for
this additional reason) to be well officered. Prescott
will answer the purpose: but he is not yet to know
that he is in contemplation. We shall not long con-
tinue in our present position. The distinctions of
1 Now first printed from the original in the Wayne MSS. I owe this
letter to the kindness of the Hon. George Bancroft.
202 Alexander Hamilton
departments are an old story, which now do not
exist except with respect to South Carolina. You
are with a detachment of the main army.
I dare say all you are doing will be found right.
I shall join my beau-pere to save you from the cord.
The arrangement for your department was unfor-
tunately sent to Congress soon after you went from
here, with the most pressing instances to determine
upon it without delay. We have heard nothing of
it since. We have repeated our prayers and exhorta-
tions. If we get no answer in three or four days, we
must determine for ourselves.
Major Francis is returned from Philadelphia, but I
have not seen him since the arrival of your letters.
I will move the inquiry you wish when I see him.
Can you do any thing for him in your department?
A severe stroke upon us is, that our arms expected
from France are not arrived. I do not know how
we shall be able to arm our recruits.
Graves sailed from the Hook the nineteenth. We
had been playing off and on two days.
TO MISS SCHUYLER z
September 6, 1780.
Most people here are groaning under a very dis-
agreeable piece of intelligence just come from the
southward, that Gates has had a total defeat near
1 Miss Elizabeth Schuyler, whom Hamilton met first at Albany on
his mission to Gates in 1777. She was the daughter of General Philip
Schuyler. At the time of this letter she and Hamilton were engaged
and they were married Dec. 14, 1780.
Private Correspondence 203
Camden, in South Carolina. Cornwallis and he met
in the night of the fifteenth, by accident, marching
to the same point. The advanced guards skirmished,
and the two armies halted and formed till morning.
In the morning a battle ensued, in which the militia,
and Gates with them, immediately ran away, and
left the Continental troops to contend with the
enemy's whole force.
They did it obstinately, and probably are most of
them cut off. Gates, however, who writes to Con-
gress, seems to know very little what has become of
his army. He showed that age and the long labors
and fatigues of a military life had not in the least
impaired his activity, for in three days and a half he
reached Hillsborough, one hundred and eighty miles
from the scene of action, leaving all his troops to
take care of themselves, and get out of the scrape
as well as they could.
He has confirmed, in this instance, the opinion I
always had of him. This event will have very seri-
ous consequences to the southward. People's im-
aginations have already given up North Carolina and
Virginia ; but I do not believe either of them will fall.
I am certain Virginia cannot. This misfortune
affects me less than others, because it is not in my
temper to repine at evils that are past, but to en-
deavor to draw good out of them, and because I
think our safety depends on a total change of system,
and this change of system will only be produced by
misfortune.
204 Alexander Hamilton
TO JAMES DUANE
September 6, 1780.
My Dear Sir:
The letter accompanying this has lain by two or
three days for want of an opportunity. I have heard
since of Gates' defeat: a very good comment on the
necessity of changing our system. His passion for
militia, I fancy, will be a little cured, and he will
cease to think them the best bulwark of American
liberty. What think you of the conduct of this
great man? I am his enemy personally, for unjust
and unprovoked attacks upon my character ; there-
fore what I say of him ought to be received as from
an enemy, and have no more weight than as it is
consistent with fact and common sense. But did
ever any one hear of such a disposition or such a
flight ? His best troops placed on the side strongest
by nature, his worst on that weakest by nature, and
his attack made with these. 'T is impossible to give
a more complete picture of military absurdity. It
is equally against the maxims of war and common
sense. We see the consequences. His left ran away,
and left his right uncovered. His right wing turned
on the left has in all probability been cut off. Though,
in truth, the General seems to have known very
little what became of his army. Had he placed his
militia on his right, supported by the morass,
and his Continental troops on his left, where it
seems he was most vulnerable, his right would have
been more secure, and his left would have op-
posed the enemy; and instead of going backward
when he ordered to attack, would have gone for-
Private Correspondence 205
ward. The reverse of what has happened might
have happened.
But was there ever an instance of a general run-
ning away, as Gates has done, from his whole army?
And was there ever so precipitate a flight? One
hundred and eighty miles in three days and a half.
It does admirable credit to the activity of a man at
his time of life. But it disgraces the general and
the soldier. I have always believed him to be very
far short of a Hector, or a Ulysses. All the world,
I think, will begin to agree with me.
But what will be done by Congress? Will he be
changed or not? If he is changed, for God's sake
overcome prejudice, and send Greene. You know
my opinion of him. I stake my reputation on the
events, give him but fair play.
But, above all things, let us have, without delay,
a vigorous government, and a well constituted army
for the war.
TO WASHINGTON
Verplanck's Point, Sept. 25, 1780.
Dear Sir:
You will see by the enclosed that we are too late.
Arnold went by water to the Vulture. I shall write
to General Greene, advising him, without making a
bustle, to be in readiness to march, and even to de-
tach a brigade this way ; for, though I do not believe
the project will go on, yet it is possible Arnold has
made such dispositions with the garrison as may
tempt the enemy, in its present weakness, to make
the stroke this night, and it seems prudent to be
206 Alexander Hamilton
providing against it. I shall endeavor to find Meigs,
and request him to march to the garrison, and shall
make some arrangements here. I hope your Excel-
lency will approve these steps, as there may be no
time to be lost. The Vulture is gone down to New
York.1
TO GENERAL GREENE
Verplanck's Point, 25th Sept., 1780.
Dear Sir:
There has just been unfolded at this place a scene
of the blackest treason. Arnold has fled to the
enemy — Andre, the British Adjutant-General, is in
our possession as a spy. His capture unravelled the
mystery.
West Point was to have been the sacrifice. All
the dispositions have been made for the purpose, and
't is possible, though not probable, we may still see
the execution. The wind is fair. I came here in
pursuit of Arnold, but was too late. I advise your
putting the army under marching orders and detach-
ing a brigade immediately this way.
TO MISS SCHUYLER
September 25, 1780.
Arnold, hearing of the plot being detected, imme-
diately fled to the enemy. I went in pursuit of him,
1 This letter is reprinted from the Writings of Washington, vii., 215.
It is also given without date in the History of the Republic, ii., 55.
Hamilton had been sent, as soon as Arnold's escape was known, to
Verplanck's Point to try to intercept him, and this letter was written
on his arrival, which he found was too late, for the bird had flown and
was safe on board the Vulture, an English sloop-of-war.
Private Correspondence 207
but was much too late ; and could hardly regret the
disappointment, when, on my return, I saw an ami-
able woman, frantic with distress for the loss of a
husband she tenderly loved ; a traitor to his country
and to his fame; a disgrace to his connections: it
was the most affecting scene I ever was witness to.
She, for a considerable time, entirely lost herself.
The General went up to see her, and she upbraided
him with being in a plot to murder her child. One
moment she raved, another she melted into tears.
Sometimes she pressed her infant to her bosom, and
lamented its fate, occasioned by the imprudence of
its father, in a manner that would have pierced in-
sensibility itself. All the sweetness of beauty, all the
loveliness of innocence, all the tenderness of a wife,
and all the fondness of a mother showed themselves
in her appearance and conduct. We have every
reason to believe that she was entirely unacquainted
with the plan, and that the first knowledge of it was
when Arnold went to tell her he must banish himself
from his country and from her forever. She in-
stantly fell into a convulsion, and he left her in that
situation.
This morning she is more composed. I paid her a
visit, and endeavored to sooth her by every method
in my power, though you may imagine she is not
easily to be consoled. Added to her other distresses,
she is very apprehensive the resentment of her
country will fall upon her (who is only unfortunate)
for the guilt of her husband.
I have tried to persuade her that her fears are
ill-founded, but she will not be convinced. She
208 Alexander Hamilton
received us in bed, with every circumstance that
would interest our sympathy ; and her sufferings were
so eloquent, that I wished myself her brother, to have
a right to become her defender. As it is, I have
entreated her to enable me to give her proofs of my
friendship. Could I forgive Arnold for sacrificing
his honor, reputation, and duty, I could not forgive
him for acting a part that must have forfeited the
esteem of so fine a woman. At present she almost
forgets his crime in his misfortunes ; and her horror
at the guilt of the traitor is lost in her love of the
man. But a virtuous mind cannot long esteem a
base one ; and time will make her despise if it cannot
make her hate.
TO MISS SCHUYLER
Tappan, Oct. 2, 1780.
Poor Andre* suffers to-day. Every thing that is
amiable in virtue, in fortitude, in delicate sentiment,
and accomplished manners, pleads for him; but
hard-hearted policy calls for a sacrifice. He must
die . I send you my account of Arnold's affair;
and to justify myself to your sentiments, I must in-
form you that I urged a compliance with Andr6's
request to be shot ; and I do not think it would have
had an ill effect; but some people are only sensible
to motives of policy, and sometimes, from a narrow
disposition, mistake it.
When Andrews tale comes to be told, and present
resentment is over, the refusing him the privilege of
Private Correspondence 209
choosing the manner of his death will be branded
with too much obstinacy.
It was proposed to me to suggest to him the idea
of an exchange for Arnold ; but I knew I should have
forfeited his esteem by doing it, and therefore de-
clined it. As a man of honor, he could but reject
it, and I would not for the world have proposed to
him a thing which must have placed me in the
unamiable light of supposing him capable of mean-
ness, or of not feeling myself the impropriety of the
measure. I confess to you I had the weakness to
value the esteem of a dying man, because I rever-
enced his merit.
TO JOHN LAURENS x
October, 1780.
Since my return from Hartford, my dear Laurens,
my mind has been too little at ease to permit me to
write to you sooner. It has been wholly occupied by
the affecting and tragic consequences of Arnold's
treason. My feelings were never put to so severe a
trial. You will no doubt have heard the principal
facts before this reaches you. But there are par-
ticulars, to which my situation gave me access, that
cannot have come to your knowledge from public re-
port, which I am persuaded you will find interesting.
From several circumstances, the project seems to
1 This letter is the best description extant of Arnold's treason, and
all the accompanying incidents. It is admirably written, and shows,
in a striking way, Hamilton's literary skill. In the edition of 1850 it
is dated September, which is an obvious error, as Andre" was not
executed until October 2d, and this letter describes his execution.
VOL. IX.— 14.
210 Alexander Hamilton
have originated with Arnold himself, and to have
been long premeditated. The first overture is traced
back to some time in June last. It was conveyed in
a letter to Colonel Robinson, the substance of which
was that the ingratitude he had experienced from
his country, concurring with other causes, had en-
tirely changed his principles; that he now only
sought to restore himself to the favor of his king by
some signal proof of his repentance, and would be
happy to open a correspondence with Sir Henry
Clinton for that purpose. About this period he
made a journey to Connecticut, on his return from
which to Philadelphia, he solicited the command of
West Point, alleging that the effects of his wounds
had disqualified him for the active duties of the
field. The sacrifice of this important post was the
atonement he intended to make. General Washing-
ton hesitated the less to gratify an officer who had
rendered such eminent services, as he was convinced
the post might be safely intrusted to one who had
given so many distinguished specimens of his brav-
ery. In the beginning of August he joined the army,
and renewed his application. The enemy, at this
juncture, had embarked the greatest part of their
forces on an expedition to Rhode Island, and our
army was in motion to compel them to relinquish the
enterprise, or to attack New York in its weakened
state. The General offered Arnold the left wing of
the army, which he declined, on the pretext already
mentioned, but not without visible embarrassment.
He certainly might have executed the duties of such
a temporary command, and it was expected, from
Private Correspondence 211
his enterprising temper, that he would gladly have
embraced so splendid an opportunity. But he did
not choose to be diverted a moment from his favorite
object, probably from an apprehension that some
different disposition might have taken place, which
would have excluded him. The extreme solicitude
he discovered to get possession of the post would
have led to a suspicion of treachery, had it been pos-
sible from his past conduct to have supposed him
capable of it.
The correspondence thus begun was carried on be-
tween Arnold and Major Andre, Adjutant-General
to the British army, in behalf of Sir Henry Clinton,
under feigned signatures, and in a mercantile dis-
guise. In an intercepted letter of Arnold's, which
lately fell into our hands, he proposes an interview,
" to settle the risks and profits of the copartnership/ '
and, in the same style of metaphor, intimates an ex-
pected augmentation of the garrison, and speaks of
it as the means of extending their traffic. It appears,
by another letter, that Andre was to have met him
on the lines, under the sanction of a flag, in the char-
acter of Mr. John Anderson. But some cause or
other not known prevented this interview.
The twentieth of last month, Robinson ■ and
Andre went up the river in the Vulture, sloop-of-war.
Robinson sent a flag to Arnold with two letters : one
to General Putnam, inclosed in another to himself,
1 Beverly Robinson, son of John Robinson of Virginia. He married
Susanna Phillipse and thus acquired fortune and part of the famous
Phillipse estate. He was a strong Tory and colonel of the regiment of
Royal Americans in the British service. After the Revolution he fled
to England, where he died.
212 Alexander Hamilton
proposing an interview with Putnam, or, in his ab-
sence, with Arnold, to adjust some private concerns.
The one to General Putnam was evidently meant as
a cover to the other, in case, by accident, the letters
should have fallen under the inspection of a third
person.
General Washington crossed the river on his way
to Hartford the day these despatches arrived. Ar-
nold, conceiving he must have heard of the flag,
thought it necessary, for the sake of appearances, to
submit the letters to him, and ask his opinion of
the propriety of complying with the request. The
General, with his usual caution, though without the
least surmise of the design, dissuaded him from it,
and advised him to reply to Robinson that whatever
related to his private affairs must be of a civil na-
ture, and could only be properly addressed to the
civil authority. This reference fortunately deranged
the plan, and was the first link in the chain of events
that led to the detection. The interview could no
longer take place in the form of a flag, but was
obliged to be managed in a secret manner.
Arnold employed one Smith J to go on board the
Vulture on the night of the twenty-second, to bring
Andre on shore, with a pass for Mr. John Anderson.
Andre came ashore accordingly, and was conducted
within a picket of ours to the house of Smith, where
Arnold and he remained together in close conference
all that night and the day following. At daylight,
1 Joshua H. Smith, who had been employed by General Howe,
Arnold's predecessor, to gather intelligence. He had always been
thought a loyal man, but Arnold succeeded in corrupting him.
Private Correspondence 213
in the morning, the commanding officer at King's
Ferry, without the privity of Arnold, moved a
couple of pieces of cannon to a point opposite to
where the Vulture lay, and obliged her to take a
more remote station. This event, or some lurking
distrust, made the boatmen refuse to convey the
two passengers back, and disconcerted Arnold so
much that, by one of those strokes of infatuation
which often confound the schemes of men consci-
ous of guilt, he insisted on Andre's exchanging his
uniform for a disguise, and returning in a mode
different from that in which he came. Andre, who
had been undesignedly brought within our posts in
the first instance, remonstrated warmly against this
new and dangerous expedient. But Arnold per-
sisting in declaring it impossible for him to return as
he came, he at length reluctantly yielded to his di-
rection, and consented to change his dress and take
the route he recommended. Smith furnished the
disguise, and in the evening passed King's Ferry
with him and proceeded to Crompond,1 where they
stopped the remainder of the night, at the instance
of a militia officer,2 to avoid being suspected by him.
The next morning they resumed their journey,
Smith accompanying Andre a little beyond Pine's
Bridge, where he left him. He had reached Tarry-
town, when he was taken up by three militiamen,3
who rushed out of the woods and seized his horse.
At this critical moment his presence of mind
1 A place about eight miles from Verplanck's Point.
2 Captain Boyd.
3 Paulding, Van Wart, and Williams.
214 Alexander Hamilton
forsook him. Instead of producing his pass, which
would have extricated him from our parties, and
could have done him no harm with his own, he asked
the militiamen if they were of the upper or lower
party; descriptive appellations known among the
enemy's refugee corps. The militiamen replied they
were of the lower party, upon which he told them he
was a British officer, and pressed them not to detain
him, as he was upon urgent business. This confession
removed all doubts, and it was in vain he afterwards
produced his pass. He was instantly forced off to a
place of greater security, where, after a careful search,
there were found concealed in the feet of his stock-
ings several papers of importance, delivered to
him by Arnold! Among these were a plan of the
fortifications of West Point; a memorial from the
engineer on the attack and defence of the place ; re-
turns of the garrison, cannon, and stores; copy of
the minutes of a council of war held by General
Washington a few weeks before. The prisoner at
first was inadvertently ordered to Arnold, but on
recollection, while still on the way, he was counter-
manded and sent to Old Salem. The papers were
enclosed in a letter to General Washington, which,
having taken a route different from that by which he
returned, made a circuit that afforded leisure for
another letter, through an ill-judged delicacy, written
to Arnold with information of Anderson's capture,
to get to him an hour before General Washington
arrived at his quarters; time enough to elude the
fate that awaited him. He went down the river on
his barge to the Vulture with such precipitate con-
Private Correspondence 215
fusion that he did not take with him a single paper
useful to the enemy. On the first notice of the
affair he was pursued, but much too late to be
overtaken.
There was some color for imagining that it was a
part of the plan to betray the General into the hands
of the enemy. Arnold was very anxious to ascer-
tain from him the precise day of his return, and the
enemy's movements seem to have corresponded to
this point. But if it was really the case it was very
injudicious. The success must have depended on
surprise, and as the officers at the advanced posts
were not in the secret their measures might have
given the alarm, and General Washington, taking
the command of the post, might have rendered the
whole scheme abortive. Arnold, it is true, had so
dispersed the garrison as to have made a defence
difficult but not impracticable; and the acquisition
of West Point was of such magnitude to the enemy
that it would have been unwise to connect it with
any other object, however great, which might make
the obtaining of it precarious.
Arnold, a moment before the setting out, went
into Mrs. Arnold's apartment, and informed her that
some transactions had just come to light which must
forever banish him from his country. She fell into
a swoon at this declaration : and he left her in it to
consult his own safety, till the servants, alarmed by
her cries, came to her relief. She remained frantic
all day, accusing every one who approached her
with an intention to murder her child (an infant in
her arms), and exhibiting every other mark of the
216 Alexander Hamilton
most genuine and agonizing distress. Exhausted by
the fatigue and tumult of her spirits, her phrensy
subsided towards evening, and she sank into all the
sadness of affliction. It was impossible not to have
been touched with her situation. Every thing
affecting in female tears, or in the misfortunes of
beauty ; every thing pathetic in the wounded tender-
ness of a wife, or in the apprehensive fondness of a
mother ; and, till I have reason to change the opinion,
I will add, every thing amiable in suffering innocence1
conspired to make her an object of sympathy to all
who were present. She experienced the most deli-
cate attentions and every friendly office, till her de-
parture for Philadelphia.
Andre was, without loss of time, conducted to the
headquarters of the army, where he was imme-
diately brought before a Board of General Officers,
to prevent all possibility of misrepresentation, or
cavil on the part of the enemy. The Board reported
that he ought to be considered as a spy, and, ac-
cording to the laws of nations, to suffer death, which
was executed two days after.
Never, perhaps, did a man suffer death with more
justice, or deserve it less. The first step he took after
his capture was to write a letter to General Wash-
ington, conceived in terms of dignity without in-
solence, and apology without meanness. The scope
of it was to vindicate himself from the imputation of
having assumed a mean character for treacherous or
interested purposes; asserting that he had been in-
1 Mrs. Arnold, as Hamilton supposed, was undoubtedly free from all
complicity in her husband's treason.
Private Correspondence 217
voluntarily an impostor ; that contrary to his inten-
tion, which was to meet a person for intelligence on
neutral ground, he had been betrayed within our
posts, and forced into the vile condition of an enemy
in disguise; soliciting only that, to whatever rigor
policy might devote him, a decency of treatment
might be observed, due to a person who, though
unfortunate, had been guilty of nothing dishonor-
able. His request was granted in its full extent;
for, in the whole progress of the affair, he was treated
with the most scrupulous delicacy. When brought
before the Board of Officers he met with every
mark of indulgence, and was required to answer no
interrogatory which could even embarrass his
feelings. On his part, while he carefully concealed
every thing that might involve others, he frankly
confessed all the facts relating to himself ; and,upon
his confession, without the trouble of examining a
witness, the Board made their report. The mem-
bers of it were not more impressed with the candor
and firmness, mixed with a becoming sensibility,
which he displayed, than he was penetrated with
their liberality and politeness. He acknowledged
the generosity of the behavior towards him in every
respect, but particularly in this, in the strongest
terms of manly gratitude. In a conversation with
a gentleman who visited him after his trial, he said
he flattered himself he had never been illiberal ; but
if there were any remains of prejudice in his mind,
his present experience must obliterate them.
In one of the visits I made to him (and I saw him
several times during his confinement), he begged me
218 Alexander Hamilton
to be the bearer of a request to the General, for per-
mission to send an open letter to Sir Henry Clinton.
" I foresee my fate," said he, " and though I pretend
not to play the hero, or to be indifferent about life,
yet I am reconciled to whatever may happen, con-
scious that misfortune, not guilt, has brought it upon
me. There is only one thing that disturbs my
tranquillity. Sir Henry Clinton has been too good
to me; he has been lavish of his kindness. I am
bound to him by too many obligations, and love him
too well, to bear the thought that he should reproach
himself, or that others should reproach him, on the
supposition of my having conceived myself obliged,
by his instructions, to run the risk I did. I would
not for the world leave a sting in his mind that
should imbitter his future days." He could scarce
finish the sentence, bursting into tears in spite of his
efforts to suppress them, and with difficulty collected
himself enough afterwards to add, "I wish to be
permitted to assure him I did not act under this im-
pression, but submitted to a necessity imposed upon
me, as contrary to my own inclination as by his
orders." His request was readily complied with,
and he wrote the letter annexed, with which I dare
say you will be as much pleased as I am, both for the
diction and sentiment.
When his sentence was announced to him he re-
marked that since it was his lot to die, there was
still a choice in the mode, which would make a ma-
terial difference in his feelings, and he would be
happy, if possible, to be indulged with a professional
death. He made a second application, by letter, in
Private Correspondence 219
concise but persuasive terms. It was thought this
indulgence, being incompatible with the customs of
war, could not be granted, and it was therefore
determined, in both cases, to evade an answer, to
spare him the sensations which a certain knowledge
of the intended mode would inflict.
In going to the place of execution, he bowed
familiarly as he went along, to all those with whom
he had been acquainted in his confinement. A
smile of complacency expressed the serene fortitude
of his mind. Arrived at the fatal spot, he asked,with
some emotion, "Must I then die in this manner?"
He was told that it had been unavoidable. " I am
reconciled to my fate," said he, "but not to the
mode. ' ' Soon, however, recollecting himself, he add-
ed: "It will be but a momentary pang," and, spring-
ing upon the cart, performed the last offices to him-
self, with a composure that excited the admiration
and melted the hearts of the beholders. Upon being
told that the final moment was at hand, and asked if
he had anything to say, he answered: " Nothing but
to request you will witness to the world that I die
like a brave man." Among the extraordinary cir-
cumstances that attended him, in the midst of his
enemies, he died universally esteemed and universally
regretted.
There was something singularly interesting in the
character and fortunes of Andre\ To an excellent
understanding, well improved by education and
travel, he united a peculiar elegance of mind and
manners, and the advantage of a pleasing person.
'T is said he possessed a pretty taste for the fine arts,
220 Alexander Hamilton
and had himself attained some proficiency in poetry,
music, and painting. His knowledge appeared with-
out ostentation, and embellished by a diffidence that
rarely accompanies so many talents and accom-
plishments: which left you to suppose more than
appeared. His sentiments were elevated, and in-
spired esteem: they had a softness that conciliated
affection. His elocution was handsome; his ad-
dress easy, polite, and insinuating. By his merit he
had acquired the unlimited confidence of his general,
and was making a rapid progress in military rank and
reputation. But in the height of his career, flushed
with new hopes from the execution of a project, the
most beneficial to his party that could be devised, he
was at once precipitated from the summit of pro-
sperity, and saw all the expectations of his ambition
blasted, and himself ruined.
The character I have given of him, is drawn partly
from what I saw of him myself, and partly from in-
formation. I am aware that a man of real merit is
never seen in so favorable a light as through the
medium of adversity: the clouds that surround him
are shades that set off his good qualities. Misfortune
cuts down the little vanities that, in prosperous
times serve as so many spots in his virtues; and
gives a tone of humility that makes his worth more
amiable. His spectators, who enjoy a happier lot,
are less prone to detract from it, through envy, and
are more disposed, by compassion, to give him the
credit he deserves, and perhaps even to magnify it.
I speak not of Andrews conduct in this affair as a
philosopher, but as a man of the world. The au-
Private Correspondence 221
thorized maxims and practices of war are the satires
of human nature. They countenance almost every
species of seduction as well as violence; and the
general who can make most traitors in the army of
his adversary is frequently most applauded.
On this scale we acquit Andre ; while we could not
but condemn him, if we were to examine his conduct
by the sober rules of philosophy and moral rectitude.
It is, however, a blemish on his fame, that he once in-
tended to prostitute a flag : about this, a man of nice
honor ought to have had a scruple ; but the tempta-
tion was great: let his misfortunes cast a veil over
his error.
Several letters from Sir Henry Clinton, and others,
were received in the course of the affair, feebly at-
tempting to prove that Andre* came out under the
protection of a flag, with a passport from a general
officer in active service ; and consequently could not
be justly detained. Clinton sent a deputation, com-
posed of Lieutenant-General Robinson, Mr. Elliot,
and Mr. William Smith, to represent, as he said, the
true state of Major Andre's case. General Greene
met Robinson, and had a conversation with him, in
which he reiterated the pretence of a flag, urged
Andre's release as a personal favor to Sir Henry
Clinton, and offered any friend of ours in their power
in exchange. Nothing could have been more frivol-
ous than the plea which was used. The fact was,
that beside the time, manner, object of the interview,
change of dress, and other circumstances, there
was not a single formality customary with flags; and
the passport was not to Major Andre, but to Mr.
222 Alexander Hamilton
Anderson. But had there been, on the contrary,
all the formalities, it would be an abuse of language
to say that the sanction of a flag for corrupting an
officer to betray his trust, ought to be respected.
So unjustifiable a purpose would not only destroy
its validity, but make it an aggravation.
Andre, himself, has answered the argument, by
ridiculing and exploding the idea, in his examination
before the Board of Officers. It was a weakness to
urge it.
There was, in truth, no way of saving him. Ar-
nold or he must have been the victim; the former
was out of our power.
It was by some suspected Arnold had taken his
measures in such a manner, that if the interview had
been discovered in the act, it might have been in. his
power to sacrifice Andre to his own security. This
surmise of double treachery made them imagine
Clinton might be induced to give up Arnold for
Andr6; and a gentleman took occasion to suggest
this expedient to the latter as a thing that might be
proposed by him. He declined it. The moment he
had been capable of so much fraility, I should have
ceased to esteem him.
The infamy of Arnold's conduct previous to his
desertion is only equalled by his baseness since. Be-
side the folly of writing to Sir Henry Clinton, assur-
ing him that Andre had acted under a passport from
him, and according to his directions while command-
ing officer at a post, and that, therefore, he did not
doubt he would be immediately sent in, he had the
effrontery to write to General Washington in the
Private Correspondence 223
same spirit, with the addition of a menace of re-
taliation, if the sentence should be carried into exe-
cution. He has since acted the farce of sending in
his resignation. This man is, in every sense, de-
spicable. Added to the scene of knavery and pros-
titution during his command in Philadelphia, which
the late seizure of his papers has unfolded, the his-
tory of his command at West Point is a history of
little, as well as great villainies. He practised every
dirty art of peculation, and even stooped to connec-
tions with the sutlers of the garrison to defraud the
public.
To his conduct, that of the captors of Andre forms
a striking contrast. He tempted them with the
offer of his watch, his horse, and any sum of money
they should name. They rejected his offers with
indignation, and the gold that could seduce a man
high in the esteem and confidence of his country*
who had the remembrance of past exploits, the mo-
tives of present reputation and future glory, to prop
his integrity, had no charms for three simple peas-
ants, leaning only on their virtue and an honest sense
of their duty. While Arnold is handed down with
execration to future times, posterity will repeat with
reverence the names of Van Wart, Paulding, and
Williams.
I congratulate you, my friend, on our happy escape
from the mischiefs with which this treason was big.
It is a new comment on the value of an honest man,
and, if it were possible, would endear you to me more
than ever.
224 Alexander Hamilton
TO ISAAC SEARS '
Oct. 12, 1780.
I was much obliged to you, my dear sir, for the
letter which you did me the favor to write me since
your return to Boston. I am sorry to find that the
same spirit of indifference to public affairs prevails.
It is necessary we should rouse and begin to do our
business in earnest, or we shall play a losing game.
It is impossible the contest can be much longer sup-
ported on the present footing. We must have a gov-
ernment with more power. We must have a tax in
kind. We must have a foreign loan. We must
have a bank — on the true principles of a bank. We
must have an administration distinct from Congress,
and in the hands of single men under their orders.
We must, above all things, have an army for the war,
and an establishment that will interest the officers in
the service.
Congress are deliberating on our military affairs;
but I apprehend their resolutions will be tinctured
with the old spirit. We seem to be proof against ex-
perience. They will, however, recommend an army
for the war, at least, as a primary object. All those
who love their country ought to exert their influence
in the States where they reside, to determine them
to take up this object with energy. The States must
sink under the burden of temporary enlistments;
and the enemy will conquer us by degrees during the
intervals of our weakness.
Clinton is now said to be making a considerable
1 Isaac Sears was one of the early patriot leaders in New York, but
never rose into distinction afterwards.
Private Correspondence 225
detachment to the southward. My fears are high,
my hopes low. We are told here there is to be a
congress of the neutral powers at the Hague, for
mediating of peace. God send it may be true. We
want it ; but if the idea goes abroad, ten to one if we
do not fancy the thing done, and fall into a profound
sleep till the cannon of the enemy awaken us next
campaign. This is our national character.
TO JAMES DUANE
October 18, 1780.
My Dear Sir:
Since my last to you, I have had the pleasure of
receiving two letters from you. I am sorry to find
we do not seem to agree in the proper remedies to
our disorder, at least, in the practicability of apply-
ing those which are proper. Convinced, as I am, of
the absolute insufficiency of our present system to
our safety, if I do not despair of the republic, it is
more the effect of constitution than of judgment.
With the sentiments I entertain of Gates, I can-
not but take pleasure in his removal; and with the
confidence I have in Greene, I expect much from his
being the successor ; at least, I expect all his circum-
stances will permit. You seem to have mistaken
me on the subject of this gentleman. When I spoke
of prejudice, I did not suppose it to exist with you,
but with Congress as a body — at least with a great
part of them. The part they have taken in the
affair, in my opinion, does honor to their impartial-
ity. I hope they will support the officer appointed
with a liberal confidence; his situation, surrounded
VOL. IX.— 15.
226 Alexander Hamilton
with difficulties, will need support. Of your influ-
ence for this purpose, I am too thoroughly persuaded
of your patriotism, my dear sir, to doubt.
Be assured, my dear sir, the marks of your regard
give me a sincere pleasure, and I shall be always
happy to cultivate it, and to give you proofs of my
affectionate attachment.
TO WASHINGTON
November 22, 1780.
Dear Sir:
Some time last fall, when I spoke to your Excel-
lency about going to the southward, I explained to
you candidly my feelings with respect to military
reputation, and how much it was my object to act a
conspicuous part in some enterprise that might per-
haps raise my character as a soldier above medi-
ocrity. You were so good as to say you would be
glad to furnish me with an occasion. When the ex-
pedition to Staten Island was afoot, a favorable one
seemed to offer. There was a battalion without a
field officer, the command of which, I thought, as it
was accidental, might be given to me without incon-
venience. I made an application for it through the
Marquis,1 who informed me of your refusal on two
principles — one, that the giving me a whole bat-
talion might be a subject of dissatisfaction; the
other, that if any accident should happen to me, in
the present state of your family, you would be em-
barrassed for the necessary assistance.
The project you now have in contemplation affords
1 Lafayette.
Private Correspondence 227
another opportunity. I have a variety of reasons
that press me to desire ardently to have it in my
power to improve it. I take the liberty to observe
that the command may now be proportioned to my
rank, and that the second objection ceases to operate,
as, during the period of establishing our winter-
quarters, there will be a suspension of material busi-
ness ; besides which, my peculiar position will, in any
case, call me away from the army in a few days, and
Mr. Harrison may be expected back early next month.
My command may consist of one hundred and fifty
or two hundred men, composed of fifty men of Major
Gibbes' corps, fifty from Col. Meigs' regiment, and
fifty or a hundred more from the light infantry;
Major Gibbes to be my major. The hundred men
from here may move on Friday morning towards ,
which will strengthen the appearances for Staten
Island, to form a junction on the other side of the
Passaic.
I suggest this mode to avoid the complaints that
might arise from composing my party wholly of the
light infantry, which might give umbrage to the
officers of that corps, who, on this plan, can have no
just subject for it.
The primary idea may be, if circumstances per-
mit, to attempt with my detachment Bayard's Hill.
Should we arrive early enough to undertake it, I
should prefer it to any thing else, both for the bril-
liancy of the attempt in itself and the decisive con-
sequences of which its success would be productive.
If we arrive too late to make this eligible (as there is
reason to apprehend), my corps may form the van
228 Alexander Hamilton
of one of the other attacks ; and Bayard's Hill will be
a pretext for my being employed in the affair, on a
supposition of my knowing the ground, which is
partly true. I flatter myself, also, that my military
character stands so well in the army as to reconcile
the officers in general to the measure. All circum-
stances considered, I venture to say any exceptions
which might be taken would be unreasonable.
I take this method of making the request to avoid
the embarrassment of a personal explanation. I
shall only add that, however much I have the matter
at heart, I wish your Excellency entirely to consult
your own inclination, and not, from a disposition to
oblige me, to do any thing that may be disagreeable
to you. It will, nevertheless, make me singularly
happy if your wishes correspond with mine.
TO WASHINGTON
Albany, Dec. 9, 1780.
Dear Sir:
Mr. Rensselaer, who has the direction of the ar-
mory here, tells me that the Board of War write him
that they are unable to support it any longer on the
present establishment for want of supplies, and pro-
pose to him to endeavor to have it carried on by
contract. This he declares is impossible. The ar-
mory must either continue on the present footing, or
cease. As far as I understand the matter, there is
no objection to the terms in themselves, but a want
of means to comply with them. If there is a want
of means, the thing must be relinquished; but, as it
Private Correspondence 229
does not strike me that it can be more difficult to
maintain an armory here than elsewhere, and as I
apprehend, in the present state of arsenals, we shall
stand in need of all the repairing we can do, I take
the liberty, at Mr. Rensselaer's request, to mention
the matter to you. I have seen the armory myself.
It appears to be in excellent order, and under a very
ingenious and industrious man. I am told it has
been conducted hitherto with great activity. Its
situation is, in my opinion, advantageous. As there
is a considerable body of troops always at West
Point, and the army generally in its vicinity, the
river is very convenient for transportation to and
from the armory, and I should think would be con-
ducive to economy. This consideration strikes me
as of importance. General Knox, however, will be
the best judge of the usefulness of this armory.
Mr. Rensselaer also mentions a considerable num-
ber of hides in the hands of persons here who had
had orders from the clothier-general not to dispose
of them but by his order. He says he can no longer
but with great difficulty procure leather for the public
works on credit, and has requested me to mention this
also to your Excellency.
Mrs. Hamilton presents her respectful compli-
ments to Mrs. Washington and yourself. After the
holidays, we shall be at headquarters.
I believe I imparted to you General Schuyler's
wish that you could make it convenient to pay
a visit with Mrs. Washington this winter. He and
Mrs. Schuyler have several times repeated their in-
quiries and wishes. I have told them I was afraid
230 Alexander Hamilton
your business would not permit you; if it should, I
shall be happy. You will enable me to let them
know about what period it will suit. When the
sleighing arrives, it will be an affair of two days up
and two days down.
TO
Headquarters, Feb. 7, 1781.
Dear Sir:
The first step to reformation, as well in an adminis-
tration as in an individual, is to be sensible of our
faults. This begins to be our case, and there are
several symptoms that please me at this juncture.
But we are so accustomed to doing right by halves,
and spoiling a good intention in the execution, that
I always wait to see the end of our public arrange-
ments before I venture to expect good or evil from
them. The plan of executive ministers is undoubt-
edly a good one, and by some men has been fruit-
lessly insisted upon for three or four years back ; but
whether it will work a present good or evil must de-
pend on the choice of the persons. This is a bad
omen. I am not at all informed of the persons in
nomination.
The accession of Maryland to the Confederacy will
be a happy event if it does not make people believe
that the Confederacy gives Congress power enough
and prevent their acquiring more. If it has this
effect it will be an evil, for it is unequal to the exi-
gencies of the war or to the preservation of the Union
hereafter. The cession of territory by Virginia ought
Private Correspondence 231
to have an important influence. New York is about
to make a similar cession. It is now before the
Legislature and will probably be adopted.
The late disturbances in the army and disquietudes
in the State of New York, which are with difficulty
diverted, show that the republic is sick and wants
powerful remedies. God send that the negotiation
abroad for money may succeed, for it is only this
that can give success to our interior efforts.
Paper credit cannot be supported without pe-
cuniary funds. Back lands are a very good resource
in reserve, but I suspect they will not have so much
present efficacy as is imagined. I only regard the
acquisition of territory to Congress as useful so far
as it enables them to procure credit.
The Eastern States are really making great exer-
tions towards the next campaign.
Have the goodness to assure the Chevalier De la
Luzerne of my sincere respect and attachment, and
do justice to the sentiments for you personally with
which I have the honor to be, etc.1
1 This letter is now first printed from the mutilated original in the
possession of a gentleman in New York, to whose kindness I am in-
debted for the opportunity to publish it. I am unable to give the
name of my kind correspondent, as his note, which accompanied the
copy of the letter, has been unfortunately lost — a circumstance which
I cannot sufficiently regret.
232 Alexander Hamilton
TO PHILIP SCHUYLER "
Headquarters, New Windsor, February 18, 1781.
My Dear Sir:
Since I had the pleasure of writing you last, an un-
expected change has taken place in my situation. I
am no longer a member of the General's family.
This information will surprise you, and the manner
of the change will surprise you more. Two days ago,
the General and I passed each other on the stairs.
He told me he wanted to speak to me. I answered
that I would wait upon him immediately. I went
below, and delivered Mr. Tilghman a letter to be
sent to the commissary, containing an order of a
pressing and interesting nature.
Returning to the General, I was stopped on the
way by the Marquis de La Fayette, and we con-
versed together about a minute on a matter of busi-
ness. He can testify how impatient I was to get
back, and that I left him in a manner which, but for
our intimacy, would have been more than abrupt.
Instead of finding the General, as is usual, in his
1 This famous letter to Hamilton's father-in-law, General Schuyler,
is now printed entire. It would have been perfectly justifiable to have
destroyed or suppressed this letter altogether, for it was written by
Hamilton when he was very angry, and had lost control of himself, so
that the opinions here expressed do not in the least represent his real
feeling about Washington, for whom he had the deepest reverence and
affection, either at this or any other time. As Mr. J. C. Hamilton,
however, saw fit to publish the letter, he should not have suppressed
part; he should have given all or nothing. It is given here in its
entirety from a copy of the original, made by Mr. James A. Hamilton,
and which I found among the papers of my grandfather, Mr. Henry
Cabot. The additional paragraphs now published for the first time
are enclosed in brackets.
Private Correspondence 233
room, I met him at the head of the stairs, where,
accosting me in an angry tone, " Colonel Hamilton/'
said he, "you have kept me waiting at the head of
the stairs these ten minutes. I must tell you, sir,
you treat me with disrespect.' ' I replied, without
petulancy, but with decision: "I am not conscious
of it, sir; but since you have thought it necessary to
tell me so, we part/' "Very well, sir," said he, "if
it be your choice, " or something to this effect, and we
separated. I sincerely believe my absence, which
gave so much umbrage, did not last two minutes.
In less than an hour after, Tilghman * came to me
in the General's name, assuring me of his great con-
fidence in my abilities, integrity, usefulness, etc., and
of his desire, in a candid conversation, to heal a
difference which could not have happened but in a
moment of passion. I requested Mr. Tilghman to
tell him — 1st. That I had taken my resolution in a
manner not to be revoked. 2d. That, as a con-
versation could serve no other purpose than to pro-
duce explanations, mutually disagreeable, though I
certainly would not refuse an interview if he desired
it, yet I would be happy if he would permit me to
decline it. 3d. That, though determined to leave
the family, the same principles which had kept me so
long in it would continue to direct my conduct to-
wards him when out of it. 4th. That, however, I
did not wish to distress him, or the public business,
by quitting him before he could derive other assist-
ance by the return of some of the gentlemen who
were absent. 5th. And that, in the mean time, it
1 Lt.-Colonel Tench Tilghman, of Washington's staff.
234 Alexander Hamilton
depended on him to let our behavior to each other
be the same as if nothing had happened. He con-
sented to decline the conversation, and thanked me
for my offer of continuing my aid in the manner
I had mentioned. [Thus we stand. I wait Mr.
Humphrey's return from the eastward, and may be
induced to wait the return of Mr. Harrison from
Virginia.]
I have given you so particular a detail of our differ-
ence from the desire I have to justify myself in your
opinion. Perhaps you may think I was precipitate
in rejecting the overture made by the General to an
accommodation. I assure you, my dear sir, it was
not the effect of resentment; it was the deliberate
result of maxims I had long formed for the govern-
ment of my own conduct.
I always disliked the office of an aid-de-camp as
having in it a kind of personal dependence. I re-
fused to serve in this capacity with two major-
generals at an early period of the war. Infected,
however, with the enthusiasm of the times, an idea
of the General's character [which experience taught
me to be unfounded] overcame my scruples, and in-
duced me to accept his invitation to enter into his
family. [It was not long before I discovered he was
neither remarkable for delicacy nor good temper,
which revived my former aversion to the station in
which I was acting, and it has been increasing ever
since.] It has been often with great difficulty that
I have prevailed upon myself not to renounce it ; but
while, from motives of public utility, I was doing
violence to my feelings, I was always determined, if
Private Correspondence 235
there should ever happen a breach between us, never
to consent to an accommodation. I was persuaded
that when once that nice barrier, which marked the
boundaries of what we owed to each other, should
be thrown down, it might be propped again, but
could never be restored.
[I resolved, whenever it should happen, not to be
in the wrong. I was convinced the concessions the
General might make would be dictated by his in-
terest, and that his self-love would never forgive me
for what it would regard as a humiliation.
I believe you know the place I held in the General's
confidence and counsels, which will make it the more
extraordinary to you to learn that for three years
past I have felt no friendship for him and have pro-
fessed none. The truth is, our dispositions are the
opposites of each other, and the pride of my temper
would not suffer me to profess what I did not feel.
Indeed, when advances of this kind have been made to
me on his part, they were received in a manner that
showed at least that I had no desire to court them,
and that I desired to stand rather upon a footing of
military confidence than of private attachment.
You are too good a judge of human nature not to
be sensible how this conduct in me must have oper-
ated on a man to whom all the world is offering in-
cense. With this key you will easily unlock the
present mystery.
At the end of the war I may say many things to
you concerning which I shall impose upon myself
till then an inviolable silence.]
The General is a very honest man. His com-
236 Alexander Hamilton
petitors have slender abilities, and less integrity.
His popularity has often been essential to the safety
of America, and is still of great importance to it.
These considerations have influenced my past con-
duct respecting him, and will influence my future. I
think it is necessary he should be supported.
His estimation in your mind, whatever may be its
amount, I am persuaded has been formed on prin-
ciples which a circumstance like this cannot ma-
terially affect; but if I thought it could diminish
your friendship for him, I should almost forego the
motives that urge me to justify myself to you. I
wish what I have said to make no other impression
than to satisfy you I have not been in the wrong. It
is also said in confidence, as a public knowledge of
the breach would, in many ways, have an ill effect.
It will probably be the policy of both sides to conceal
it, and cover the separation with some plausible pre-
text. I am importuned by such of my friends as
are privy to the affair, to listen to a reconciliation;
but my resolution is unalterable.
As I cannot think of quitting the army during the
war, I have a project of re-entering into the artillery,
by taking Lieutenant-Colonel Forrest's place, who is
desirous of retiring on half-pay. I have not, how-
ever, made up my mind upon this head, as I should
be obliged to come in the youngest Lieutenant-Col-
onel instead of the eldest, which I ought to have been
by natural succession, had I remained in the corps;
and, at the same time, to resume studies relative to
the profession, which, to avoid inferiority, must be
laborious.
Private Correspondence 237
If a handsome command in the campaign in the
light infantry should offer itself, I shall balance be-
tween this and the artillery. My situation in the
latter would be more solid and permanent : but as I
hope the war will not last long enough to make it
progressive, this consideration has the less force. A
command for the campaign would leave me the win-
ter to prosecute studies relative to my future career
in life.1 I have written to you on this subject with
all the freedom and confidence to which you have a
right, and with an assurance of the interest you take
in all that concerns me.
TO GENERAL GREENE
February, 1781.
Dear General:
I acknowledge myself to have been unpardonably
delinquent in not having written to you before, but
my matrimonial occupations have scarcely left me
leisure or inclination for any other. I must now be
brief, as the post is just setting out. I shall shortly
write you at large. I have not been much in the way
of knowing sentiments out of the army, but as far as
I am acquainted with them, either in or out, you
have great reason to be satisfied. Your conduct in
the southern command seems to be universally ap-
proved, and your reputation is progressive. How
long this will last, the wheel of fortune will have too
much in determining. I cannot tell you any thing
x There is a break marked here in the edition of 1850, but my copy
of the original letter does not indicate any omission.
238 Alexander Hamilton
of our prospects here, because we know little about
them ourselves. Hitherto we have received few
recruits. I fear this campaign will be a defensive
one on our part. Harrison has left the General to
be a chief-justice of Maryland. I am about leaving
him to be any thing that fortune may cast up — I
mean in the military line. This, my dear General,
is not an affair of calculation, but of feeling. You
may divine the rest, and I am sure you will keep
your divinations to yourself. The enemy have
gotten so much in the way of intercepting our mails
that I am afraid of seeing whatever I write hung up
the week after in Rivington's Gazette. This obliges
me to be cautious. Adieu. My dear General, let
me beg you will believe that whatever change there
may be in my situation, there will never be any in
my respect, esteem, and affection for you.
P. S. — Let me know if I could find any thing worth
my while to do in the southern army. You know I
shall hate to be nominally a soldier.1
TO WASHINGTON
De Peyster's Point, April 27, 1781.
Sir:
I imagine your Excellency has been informed that
in consequence of the resolution of Congress for
granting commissions to aids- de- camp appointed
under the former establishment, I have obtained
1 This letter is reprinted from the History of the Republic, ii., 187. It
has no date except the year, but was evidently written just after the
disagreement with Washington, of Feb. 1 6th, described in the preceding
letter.
Private Correspondence 239
one of lieutenant-colonel in the army of the United
States, bearing rank since the first of March, 1777.
It is become necessary to me to apply to your Ex-
cellency to know in what manner you foresee you
will be able to employ me in the ensuing campaign.
I am ready to enter into activity whenever you think
proper, though I am not anxious to do it till the
army takes the field, as before that period I perceive
no object.
Unconnected as I am with any regiment, I can
have no other command than in a light corps, and I
flatter myself my pretensions to this are good.
Your Excellency knows I have been in actual ser-
vice since the beginning of '76. I began in the line,
and had I continued there I ought in justice to have
been more advanced in rank than I now am. I be-
lieve my conduct in the different capacities in which
I have acted has appeared to the officers of the
army in general such as to merit their confidence and
esteem; and I cannot suppose them to be so ungener-
ous as not to see me with pleasure put into a situa-
tion still to exercise the disposition I have always had
of being useful to the United States. I mention
these things only to show that I do not apprehend
the same difficulties can exist in my case (which is
peculiar) that have opposed the appointments to
commands of some other officers not belonging to
what is called the line. Though the light infantry
is chiefly formed, yet being detached to the south-
ward, I take it for granted there will be a vanguard
detachment formed for this army.
240 Alexander Hamilton
TO WASHINGTON
De Peyster's Point, May 2, 1781.
Sir:
I am extremely sorry to have embarrassed you by
my late application, and that you should think there
are insuperable obstacles to a compliance with it.
Having renounced my expectations, I have no other
inducement for troubling your Excellency with a
second letter, than to obviate the appearance of
having desired a thing inconsistent with the good of
the service, while I was acquainted with the circum-
stances that made it so.
I was too interested a spectator of what happened
in the case of Major MTherson, not to have re-
marked, and not to recollect, all the circumstances.
The opposition turned ostensibly on his being a
brevet officer, yet having a command in a corps
formed entirely from one line; the propriety of his
being employed in a detachment from the army at
large, so far as I remember, was not disputed. In
delicacy to Major MTherson, no personal objections
were formally made, but in reality they existed and
contributed to the discontent. It was thought a
peculiar hardship that a gentleman who had for a
long time fought against us, and had not taken part
with us till a late period and when our affairs had
assumed a more prosperous aspect, should be pre-
ferred in one of the most honorary commands of the
service. Your Excellency must be convinced that
I mention this in no other view than to show the
sentiments of the officers at the time and the whole
Private Correspondence 241
grounds for the opposition. My esteem for Major
MTherson, and other reasons, make it impossible I
can have a different intention.
I know less of the motives of dissatisfaction in the
case of Colonel Gimat and Major Galvan; but I
have understood that it is founded on their being
appointed in the light corps for two successive
campaigns.
It would be uncandid in me not to acknowledge
that I believe a disposition to exclude brevet officers
in general from command has a great share in the
opposition in every instance, and that so far it
affects my case. But, at the same time, it appears
to me this principle alone can never be productive of
more than momentary murmurs, where it is not
seconded by some plausible pretext. I also am
convinced that the Pennsylvania officers, for their
own sakes, repented the rash steps they had taken,
and, on cool reflection, were happy in an opportu-
nity to relinquish their menaces of quitting a service
to which they were attached by habit, inclination,
and interest, as well as by patriotism. I believe,
too, we shall never have a similar instance in the
army unless the practice should be carried to excess.
Major Galvan, I am told, will probably be relieved.
Colonel Gimat will be then the only brevet officer
remaining in command. Your Excellency is the
best judge of the proper limits, and there can be no
doubt that the rights of particular officers ought to
give place to the general good and tranquillity of
the service.
I cannot forbear repeating that my case is pe-
VOL. IX.— 16.
242 Alexander Hamilton
culiar and dissimilar to all the former. It is dis-
tinguished by the circumstances I have before
intimated: my early entrance into the service; my
having made the campaign of '76, the most disagree-
able of the war, at the head, of a company of artil-
lery, and having been entitled in that corps to a
rank equal in degree, and more ancient in date, than
I now possess; my having made all the subsequent
campaigns in the family of the Commander-in-Chief,
in a constant course of important and laborious ser-
vice. These are my pretensions, at this advanced
period of the war, to being employed in the only way
which my situation admits; and I imagine they
would have their weight in the minds of the officers
in general. I only urge them a second time as rea-
sons which will not suffer me to view the matter in
the same light with your Excellency, or to regard
as impracticable my appointment in a light corps,
should there be one formed. I entreat that they
may be understood in this sense only. I am in-
capable of wishing to obtain any object by impor-
tunity. I assure your Excellency that I am too well
persuaded of your candor to attribute your refusal
to any other cause than an apprehension of incon-
veniences that may attend the appointment.
P. S. — I have used the term brevet in the sense
your Excellency appears to have understood it in,
as signifying, in general, all officers not attached to
any established corps. Congress seem, however, to
have made a distinction: they only give a kind of
warrant to those whom they designate as brevet
officers. Mine is a regular commission.
Private Correspondence 243
TO MRS. HAMILTON
Camp near Dobbs Ferry, July 10, 1781.
The day before yesterday I arrived here, but for
want of an opportunity could not write any sooner;
indeed, I know of none now. Finding, when I came
here, that nothing was said on the subject of a
command, I wrote the General a letter, and inclosed
him my commission. This morning Tilghman came
to me in his name, pressed me to retain my commis-
sion, with an assurance that he would endeavor, by
all means, to give me a command, nearly such as I
could have desired in the present circumstances of
the army. Though I know you would be happy to
hear had I rejected this proposal, it is a pleasure my
reputation would not permit me to afford you. I
consented to retain my commission, and accept the
command. I quarter, at present, by a very polite
and warm invitation, with General Lincoln, and ex-
perience from the officers of both armies every mark
of esteem. * * *
TO WASHINGTON
Camp, August 7, 1781.
Sir:
The other day I applied to Colonel Tilghman for
an order for shoes, for the two companies of levies.
He thought, on a general principle, it could not be
granted; but as from the best of my recollection,
confirmed by inquiry of others, I have reason to be-
lieve a distinction was made last campaign in favor
of the advanced corps, in the case of Cortland's
244 Alexander Hamilton
regiment, I am induced to submit the matter to your
Excellency.
Your Excellency is sensible that the service of an
advanced corps, must be in general more active than
of the line; and that, in a country like this, the
article of shoes is indispensable. If the men cannot
be supplied, they cannot perform the duty required
of them; which will make the service fall heavier
upon that part of the corps which is not under the
same disability, as well as render a considerable part
of it of much less utility. I will not add any per-
sonal consideration to those which affect the service ;
though it certainly cannot be a matter of indifference
to me.
The men, I am informed, have, in general, received
a bounty of about thirty pounds each, which is
spent. The State makes no provision for them; and
the fact is, they cannot supply themselves: they
must therefore be destitute, if they have not a con-
tinental supply.
The distinction last campaign was, if I am not
mistaken, that shoes were an article of absolute
necessity, and therefore to be allowed, though the
articles of clothing were refused.
TO MRS. HAMILTON
August, 1 78 1.
In my last letter I informed you that there was a
greater prospect of activity now, than there had
been heretofore. I did this to prepare your mind for
an event which, I am sure, will give you pain. I
Private Correspondence 245
begged your father, at the same time, to intimate to
you, by degrees, the probability of its taking place.
I used this method to prevent a surprise, which
might be too severe to you. A part of the army, my
dear girl, is going to Virginia, and I must, of neces-
sity, be separated at a much greater distance from
my beloved wife. I cannot announce the fatal
necessity, without feeling every thing that a fond
husband can feel. I am unhappy; I am unhappy
beyond expression. I am unhappy, because I am to
be so remote from you; because I am to hear from
you less frequently than I am accustomed to do. I
am miserable, because I know you will be so; I am
wretched at the idea of flying so far from you, with-
out a single hour's interview, to tell you all my pains
and all my love. But I cannot ask permission to
visit you. It might be thought improper to leave
my corps at such a time and upon such an occasion.
I must go without seeing you — I must go without
embracing you; — alas! I must go. But let no idea,
other than of the distance we shall be asunder, dis-
quiet you. Though I said the prospects of activity
will be greater, I said it to give your expectations a
different turn, and prepare you for something dis-
agreeable. It is ten to one that our views will be dis-
appointed, by Cornwallis retiring to South Carolina
by land. At all events, our operations will be over
by the latter end of October, and I will fly to my
home. Don't mention I am going to Virginia.
246 Alexander Hamilton
TO MRS. HAMILTON
Head of Elk, Sept. 6, 1781.
Yesterday, my lovely wife, I wrote to you, inclos-
ing you a letter in one to your father, to the care of
Mr. Morris. To-morrow the post sets out, and to-
morrow we embark for Yorktown. I cannot refuse
myself the pleasure of writing you a few lines. Con-
stantly uppermost in my thoughts and affections, I
am happy only when my moments are devoted to
some office that respects you. I would give the
world to be able to tell you all I feel and all I wish,
but consult your own heart and you will know mine.
What a world will soon be between us ! To support
the idea, all my fortitude is insufficient. What must
be the case with you, who have the most female of
female hearts? I sink at the perspective of your
distress, and I look to heaven to be your guardian
and supporter. Circumstances that have just come
to my knowledge assure me that our operations will
be expeditious, as well as our success certain. Early
in November, as I promised you, we shall certainly
meet. Cheer yourself with this idea, and with the
assurance of never more being separated. Every
day confirms me in the intention of renouncing pub-
lic life and devoting myself wholly to you. Let
others waste their time and their tranquillity in a
vain pursuit of power and glory ; be it my object to
be happy in a quiet retreat with my better angel.
Private Correspondence 247
TO MRS. HAMILTON
September, 1781.
How chequered is human life ! How precarious is
happiness ! How easily do we often part with it for
a shadow ! These are the reflections that frequently
intrude themselves upon me with a painful applica-
tion. I am going to do my duty. Our operations
will be so conducted as to economize the lives of men.
Exert your fortitude and rely upon heaven.1
TO LAFAYETTE
Camp before Yorktown, Oct. 15, 1781.
Sir:
I have the honor to render you an account of the
corps under my command in your attack of last
night upon the redoubt on the left of the enemy's
lines.
Agreeably to your orders, we advanced in two
columns with unloaded arms : the right, composed of
Lieutenant-Colonel Gimat's battalion and my own,
commanded by Major Fish; the left, of a detach-
ment commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Laurens,
destined to take the enemy in reverse, and intercept
their retreat. The column on the right was preceded
by a vanguard of twenty men, led by Lieutenant
Mansfield, and a detachment of sappers and miners,
commanded by Captain Gilliland, for the purpose of
removing obstructions.
The redoubt was commanded by Major Campbell,
with a detachment of British and German troops,
and was completely in a state of defence.
1 Reprinted from the History of the Republic, ii., 260.
248 Alexander Hamilton
The rapidity and immediate success of the assault
are the best comment on the behavior of the troops.
Lieutenant-Colonel Laurens distinguished himself by
an exact and vigorous execution of his part of the
plan, by entering the enemy's works with his corps
among the foremost, and making prisoner the com-
manding officer of the redoubt. Lieutenant-Colonel
Gimat's battalion, which formed the van of the right
attack, and which fell under my immediate observa-
tion, encouraged by the decisive and animated ex-
ample of their leader, advanced with an ardor and
resolution superior to every obstacle. They were
well seconded by Major Fish, with the battalion
under his command, who, when the front of the
column reached the abatis, unlocking his corp to the
left, as he had been directed, advanced with such
celerity as to arrive in time to participate in the
assault.
Lieutenant Mansfield deserves particular com-
mendation for the coolness, firmness, and punctuality
with which he conducted the vanguard. Captain
Olney, who commanded the first platoon of Gimat's
battalion, is entitled to peculiar applause. He led
his platoon into the work with exemplary intrepidity,
and received two bayonet wounds. Captain Gilli-
land, with the detachment of sappers and miners,
acquitted themselves in a manner that did them
great honor.
I do but justice to the several corps when I have
the pleasure to assure you there was not an officer
nor soldier whose behavior, if it could be particular-
ized, would not have a claim to the warmest appro-
Private Correspondence 249
bation. As it would have been attended with delay
and loss to wait for the removal of the abatis and
palisades, the ardor of the troops was indulged in
passing over them.
There was a happy coincidence of movements.
The redoubt was in the same moment enveloped and
carried in every part. The enemy are entitled to the
acknowledgment of an honorable defence.
Permit me to have the satisfaction of expressing
our obligations to Col. Armand, Capt. Legongne, the
Chevalier De Fontevieux, and Capt. Bedkin, officers
of his corps, who, acting upon this occasion as volun-
teers, proceeded at the head of the right column,
and, entering the redoubt among the first, by their
gallant example contributed to the success of the
enterprise.
Our killed and wounded you will perceive by the
enclosed return. I sensibly felt, at a critical period,
the loss of the assistance of Lieutenant-Colonel
Gimat, who received a musket ball in his foot, which
obliged him to retire from the field. Captain Bets,
of Laurens's corps, Captain Hunt and Lieutenant
Mansfield, of Gimat's were wounded with the bayonet
in gallantly entering the work. Captain Kirkpat-
rick, of the corps of sappers and miners, received a
wound in the ditch.
Inclosed is a return of the prisoners. The killed
and wounded of the enemy did not exceed eight.
Incapable of imitating examples of barbarity, and,
forgetting recent provocations, the soldiery spared
every man who ceased to fight.
250
Alexander Hamilton
Return of the Killed and Wounded in the Advanced Corps
Commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Hamilton, in an
Attack on the Enemy's Left Redoubt on the
Evening of the 14TH Oct., 1781.
Lieut-
Cols.
Majors.
Capt's.
Sub-
alterns
Ser-
geants.
Rank
and
File.
•d
1
*d
g
■g
a
1
J)
9
•d
•d
a
0
•d
i
*d
■B
a
0
2
1
1
•d
•d*
0
*d
C
1
•d
I
I
*d
B
a
0
*
1
1
■d
i
7
1
8
■d
6
*d
«
0
Lt.-Col. Hamilton's battal-
ion
I •
4
Lt.-Col. Gimat's battalion.
Lt -Col. Laurens's detach-
ment
15
S
1
Corps of Sappers and Miners
Total
I
4
25
TO MRS. HAMILTON
YORKTOWN, Oct. 16, 1781.
Two nights ago, my Eliza, my duty and my honor
obliged me to take a step in which your happiness
was too much risked. I commanded an attack upon
one of the enemy's redoubts; we carried it in an
instant, and with little loss. You will see the par-
ticulars in the Philadelphia papers. There will be,
certainly, nothing more of this kind ; all the rest will
be by approach; and if there should be another
occasion, it will not fall to my turn to execute it.1
1 Reprinted from the History of the Republic, ii., 275.
Private Correspondence 251
TO WASHINGTON
March r, 1782.
Sir:
I need not observe to your Excellency that respect
for the opinion of Congress will not permit me to be
indifferent to the impressions they may receive of
my conduct. On this principle, though I do not
think the subject of the enclosed letter of sufficient
importance to request an official communication of
it, yet I should be happy it might in some way be
known to the members of that honorable body.
Should they hereafter learn that, though retained on
the list of their officers, I am not in the execution of
the duties of my station, I wish them to be sensible
that it is not a diminution of zeal which induces me
voluntarily to withdraw my services, but that I only
refrain from intruding them when circumstances
seem to have made them either not necessary or not
desired; and that I shall not receive emoluments
without performing the conditions to which they
were annexed. I also wish them to be apprised upon
what footing my future continuance in the army is
placed, that they may judge how far it is expedient
to permit it. I therefore take the liberty to request
the favor of your Excellency to impart the know-
ledge of my situation in such manner as you think
most convenient.
TO WASHINGTON
Philadelphia, March i, 1782.
Sir.
Your Excellency will, I am persuaded, readily
admit the force of this sentiment, that though it is
252 Alexander Hamilton
the duty of a good citizen to devote his services to
the public when it has occasion for them, he cannot
with propriety or delicacy to himself obtrude them
when it either has, or appears to have none. The
difficulties I experienced last campaign in obtaining
a command will not suffer me to make any further
application on that head.
As I have many reasons to consider my being em-
ployed hereafter in a precarious light, the bare possi-
bility of rendering an equivalent will not justify to
my scruples the receiving any future emoluments
from my commission. I therefore renounce, from
this time, all claim to the compensations attached
to my military station during the war or after-
wards. But I have motives which will not permit
me to resolve on a total resignation. I sincerely
hope a prosperous train of affairs may continue
to make it no inconvenience to decline the services
of persons whose zeal, in worse times, was found
not altogether useless ; but as the most promising
appearances are often reversed by unforeseen dis-
asters, and as unfortunate events may again make
the same zeal of some value, I am unwilling to put
it out of my power to renew my exertions in the
common cause in the line in which I have hitherto
acted.
I shall accordingly retain my rank while I am per-
mitted to do it, and take this opportunity to declare
that I shall be at all times ready to obey the call of
the public in any capacity, civil or military (con-
sistent with what I owe to myself), in which there
may be a prospect of my contributing to the final
Private Correspondence 253
attainment of the object for which I embarked in
the service.1
TO RICHARD K. MEADE ■
Philadelphia, March, 1782.
A half hour since brought me the pleasure of your
letter of December last. It went to Albany and
came from thence to this place. I heartily felicitate
you on the birth of your daughter. I can well con-
ceive your happiness on that occasion by that which
I feel on a similar one. Indeed, the sensations of a
tender father of the child of a beloved mother can
only be conceived by those who have experienced
them.
Your heart, my dear Meade, is peculiarly formed
for enjoyments of this kind. You have every right
to be a happy husband — a happy father. You have
every prospect of being so. I hope your felicity may
never be interrupted.
You cannot imagine how entirely domestic I am
growing. I lose all taste for the pursuits of ambi-
tion. I sigh for nothing but the company of my
wife and my baby. The ties of duty alone, or im-
agined duty, keep me from renouncing public life
altogether. It is, however, probable I may not any
longer be engaged in it. I have explained to you
the difficulties which I met with in obtaining a
1 This was inclosed in the preceding letter. History of the Republic,
ii., 279.
3 Col. Meade, of Virginia, was one of Washington's confidential and
trusted aides-de-camp. He was a gallant soldier and an intimate
friend of Hamilton.
254 Alexander Hamilton
command last campaign. I thought it incompatible
with the delicacy due to myself to make any applica-
tion this campaign. I have expressed this senti-
ment in a letter to the General, and, retaining my
rank only, have relinquished the emoluments of my
commission, declaring myself , notwithstanding, ready
at all times to obey the calls of the public. I don't
expect to hear any of these, unless the state of our
affairs should change for the worse, and, lest by any
unforeseen accident that would happen, I choose to
keep myself in a situation again to contribute my
aid. This prevents a total resignation.
You were right in supposing I neglected to prepare
what I promised you at Philadelphia. The truth is
I was in such a hurry to get home that I could think
of nothing else. As I set out to-morrow morning
for Albany, I cannot from this place send you the
matter you wish.
Imagine, my dear Meade, what pleasure it must
give Eliza and myself to know that Mrs. Meade in-
terests herself in us. Without a personal acquaint-
ance, we have been long attached to her. My visit
at Mr. Fitzhugh's confirmed my partiality. Betsy
is so fond of your family that she proposes to form a
match between her boy and your girl, provided you
will engage to make the latter as amiable as her
mother.
Truly, my dear Meade, I often regret that fortune
has cast our residence at such a distance from each
other. It would be a serious addition to my happi-
ness if we lived where I could see you every day, but
fate has determined it otherwise. I am a little hur-
Private Correspondence 255
ried, and can only request, in addition, that you will
present me most affectionately to Mrs. Meade, and
believe me to be, etc.
TO ROBERT MORRIS
Albany, May 18, 1782.
Sir:
I had this day the honor of receiving your letter
of the 2d instant, and am much obliged by the mark
of your confidence which it contains, and to Col.
Stewart for his friendly intentions upon the occasion.
My military situation has indeed become so nega-
tive, that I have no motive to continue in it ; and if
my services could be of importance to the public in
a civil line, I should cheerfully obey its command.
But the plan which I have marked out to myself is
the profession of the law, and I am now engaged in
a course of studies for that purpose. Time is so
precious to me that I could not put myself in the way
of any interruptions, unless for an object of conse-
quence to the public or to myself. The present is
not of this nature. Such are the circumstances of
this State, the benefit arising from the office you
propose would not, during the war, exceed yearly
one hundred pounds; for, unfortunately, I am per-
suaded it will not pay annually into the Continental
treasury above forty thousand pounds; and, on a
peace establishment, this will not be for some time
to come much more than doubled. You will per-
ceive, sir, that an engagement of this kind does not
256 Alexander Hamilton
correspond with my views, and does not afford a
sufficient inducement to relinquish them.
I am not the less sensible of the obliging motives
which dictated the offer, and it will be an additional
one to that respect and esteem with which I have
the honor to be, etc.
TO GENERAL KNOX
Albany, June 7, 1782.
Dear General:
We are told here that there is a British officer
coming on from Cornwallis, army to be executed by
way of retaliation for the murder of Capt. Huddy.
As this appears to me clearly to be an ill-timed pro-
ceeding, and if persisted in will be derogatory to the
national character, I cannot forbear communicating
to you my ideas upon the subject. A sacrifice of
this sort is entirely repugnant to the genius of the
age we live in, and is without example in modern
history, nor can it fail to be considered in Europe
as wanton and unnecessary. It appears that the
enemy (from necessity, I grant, but the operation is
the same) have changed their system and adopted a
more humane one ; and, therefore, the only justifying
motive of retaliation — the preventing a repetition of
cruelty — ceases. But if this were not the case, so
solemn and deliberate a sacrifice of the innocent for
the guilty must be condemned on the present re-
ceived notions of humanity, and encourage an opin-
ion that we are, in a certain degree, in a state of
barbarism. Our affairs are now in a prosperous train,
Private Correspondence 257
and so vigorous — I would rather say so violent — a
measure would want the plea of necessity. It would
argue meanness in us that at this late stage of the
war, in the midst of success, we should suddenly de-
part from that temper with which we have all along
borne with a great and more frequent provocation.
The death of Andre could not have been dispensed
with, but it must still be viewed at a distance as an
act of rigid justice. If we wreak our resentment on
an innocent person, it will be suspected that we are
too fond of executions. I am persuaded it will have
an influence peculiarly unfavorable to the General's
character.
If it is seriously believed that in this advanced
stage of affairs retaliation is necessary, let another
mode be chosen. Let under actors be employed,
and let the authority by which it is done be wrapt in
obscurity and doubt. Let us endeavor to make it
fall upon those who have had a direct or indirect
share in the guilt. Let not the Commander-in-
Chief — considered as the first and most respectable
character among us — come forward in person and
be the avowed author of an act at which every hu-
mane feeling revolts. Let us at least have as much
address as the enemy ; and, if we must have victims,
appoint some obscure agents to perform the cere-
mony and bear the odium which must always attend
even justice itself when directed by extreme severity.
For my own part, my dear sir, I think a business
of this complexion entirely out of season. The time
for it, if there ever was one, is past.
But it is said that the Commander-in-Chief has
VOL. IX.— 17.
258 Alexander Hamilton
pledged himself for it and cannot recede. Incon-
sistency in this case would be better than consist-
ency. But pretexts may be found and will be
readily admitted in favor of humanity. Carleton
will in all probability do something like apology and
concession. He will give appearances of preventing
everything of the kind in future. Let the General
appear to be satisfied with these appearances. The
steps Carleton is said to have taken to suppress the
refugee incursions will give the better color to lenity.
I address myself to you upon this occasion, be-
cause I know your liberality and your influence with
the General. If you are of my opinion, I am sure
you will employ it, if it should not be too late. I
would not think a letter necessary, but I know how
apt men are to be actuated by the circumstances
which immediately surround them, and to be led
into an approbation of measures which, in another
situation, they would disapprove. Mrs. Hamilton
joins me in compliments to Mrs. Knox.1
1 This letter is printed from the original in the possession of the
New England Historical Genealogical Society [Knox MSS., vol. viii.,
pp. 170-172]. It has already been printed in the History of the Re-
public, ii., 284. The affair to which it refers was the murder of Captain
Huddy, an American officer, by a party of refugees under the com-
mand of Captain Lippincott. The anger excited by this brutal out-
rage was intense, and Washington was so strongly moved, that he
demanded from Sir Guy Carleton the surrender of Lippincott. This
being refused, he ordered a British officer to be selected from among
the prisoners and held in close confinement preparatory to execution
if Sir Guy Carleton would not yield. The lot fell upon Captain Asgill,
an officer of the Guards and a boy of nineteen. Captain Asgill was
finally released, as Washington could not bring himself to this act of
retaliation, even as a last extremity, and the real culprit escaped. It
was while Asgill was in prison with death hanging over him that
Hamilton wrote this letter.
Private Correspondence 259
TO ROBERT MORRIS
Albany, June 17, 1782.
Sir:
The letter which you did me the honor to write me,
of the 4th instant, came to my hands too late to per-
mit me to answer it by the return of the same post.
The explanation you give of your intention in your
late offer makes it an object that will fully compen-
sate for the time it will deduct from my other oc-
cupations. In accepting it, I have only one scruple,
arising from a doubt whether the service I can render
in the present state of things will be an equivalent
for the compensation. The whole system (if it may
be so called) of taxation in this State is radically
vicious, burthensome to the people, and unproduc-
tive to government. As the matter now stands,
there seems to be little for a continental receiver to
do. The whole business appears to be thrown into
the hands of the county treasurers, nor do I find that
there is any appropriation made of any part of the
taxes collected to continental purposes, or any pro-
vision to authorize payment to the officer you ap-
point; this, however, must be made. There is only
one way in which I can imagine a prospect of being
materially useful — that is, in seconding your applica-
tion to the State. In popular assemblies much may
sometimes be brought about by personal discussions,
by entering into details and combating objections as
they rise. If it should at any time be thought ad-
visable by you to empower me to act in this capacity,
I shall be happy to do every thing that depends on
me to effectuate your views. I flatter myself to you,
260 Alexander Hamilton
sir, I need not profess that I suggest this, not from a
desire to augment the importance of office, but to
advance the public interest.
It is of primary moment to me as soon as possible
to take my station in the law, and on this considera-
tion I am pressing to qualify myself for admission
to next term, which will be the latter end of July.
After this, if you think an interview with me neces-
sary I will wait upon you in Philadelphia. In the
meantime I shall be happy to receive your instruc-
tions, and shall direct my attention more particu-
larly to acquiring whatever information may be
useful to my future operations. I have read your
publications at different times, but as I have not the
papers containing them in my possession, it will be
necessary that their contents should be comprised
in your instructions. A meeting of the Legislature
is summoned early in the next month, at which, if I
previously receive your orders, it may be possible to
put matters in train.
I am truly indebted to you, sir, for the disposition
you have manifested upon this occasion ; and I shall
only add an assurance of my endeavors to justify
your confidence and prove to you the sincerity of
that respectful attachment with which
I am, sir, etc.
Private Correspondence 261
TO COMFORT SANDS x
Albany, June 23, 1782.
Sir:
Mr. Morris having lately offered me the appoint-
ment of Receiver of Continental Taxes for this State,
I wish to collect as much and as accurate information
as possible of the situation of its money concerns. It
will be, among other things, of great importance that
I should form an idea of the money brought into the
State and carried out of it ; and, with a view to this,
I take the liberty to request you will furnish me with
an estimate of what you have reason to think you
will lay out in this State in the course of a year in the
transactions of your contract business. Mr. Duer
has been so obliging as to promise me a sketch of his
disbursements in this quarter, and has informed me
that you are principally charged with what relates
to the supplies of the main army as well as West
Point, and will therefore be best able to enlighten me
on that head. The calculation may not admit of
absolute precision; but if it comes near the truth it
will answer. It would be useful that you could dis-
tinguish, as nearly as possible, what part will be in
specie, what in bank and other notes. As this is a
matter that can be attended with no inconvenience
to any person, and will be conducive to the public
utility, I flatter myself you will favor me with a
speedy communication.
1 A merchant and army contractor of New York.
262 Alexander Hamilton
TO ROBERT MORRIS
Albany, July 13, 1782.
Sir:
I have this moment received your letter of the
second inst., and as the post will set out on its return
in half an hour, I have little more than time to ac-
knowledge the receipt of it.
I shall to-morrow morning commence a journey to
Poughkeepsie, where the Legislature are assembled,
and I will endeavor by every step in my power to
second your views, though, I am sorry to add, with-
out very sanguine expectations. I think it proba-
ble the Legislature will do something, but whatever
momentary effort they may make, till the entire
change of their present system very little will be
done. To effect this, mountains of prejudice and
particular interest are to be levelled. For my own
part, considering the late serious misfortune of our
ally, the spirit of reformation, of wisdom, and of
unanimity, which seems to have succeeded to that of
blunder, perverseness, and dissension in the British
Government, and the universal reluctance of these
States to do what is right, I cannot help viewing our
situation as critical, and I feel it the duty of every
citizen to exert his faculties to the utmost to support
the measures, especially those solid arrangements of
finance on which our safety depends.
I will by the next post forward you the bond exe-
cuted with proper sureties.
It is not in the spirit of compliment, but of sin-
cerity, I assure you, that the opinion I entertain of
him who presides in the department was not one of
Private Correspondence 263
the smallest motives to my acceptance of the office;
nor will that esteem and confidence which makes me
now sensibly feel the obliging expressions of your
letter fail to have a great share in influencing my
future exertions.
TO GOVERNOR CLINTON
POUGHKEEPSIE, July 1 6, 1 782.
Sir:
I have the honor to inclose your Excellency the
copy of a warrant from the Honorable Robert Morris,
Esq., Superintendent of the Finances of the United
States, by which you will perceive that, agreeable to
the resolution of Congress, of the 2d of November
last, he has appointed me Receiver of the Continental
Taxes of the State. I am therefore to request that
the Legislature will be pleased to vest in me the au-
thority required by that resolution.
It is a part of my duty to explain to the Legisla-
ture, from time to time, the views of the Superin-
tendent of Finance, in pursuance of the orders of
Congress, that they may be the better enabled to
judge of the measures most proper to be adopted
for an effectual co-operation. For this purpose I
pray your Excellency to impart my request, that I
may have the honor of a conference with a committee
of the two Houses, at such time and place as they
may find convenient.
264 Alexander Hamilton
TO ROBERT MORRIS
POUGHKEEPSIE, July 22, 1782.
Sir:
Agreeably to my letter to you from Albany, I
came to this place and had an interview with a com-
mittee of the Legislature, in which I urged the
several matters contained in your instructions. I
strongly represented the necessity of solid arrange-
ments of finance, and, by way of argument, pointed
out all the defects of the present system. I found
every man convinced that something was wrong, but
few that were willing to recognize the mischief when
defined, and consent to the proper remedy. The
quantum of taxes already imposed is so great as to
make it useless to impose any others to a considerable
amount. A bill has, however, passed both Houses,
payable in specie, bank notes, or your notes, for
eighteen thousand pounds. It is at present appro-
priated to your order, but I doubt whether some
subsequent arrangement will not take place for a
different appropriation. The Commander-in-Chief
has applied for a quantity of forage, which the Legis-
lature is devising the means of furnishing, and I fear
it will finish by diverting the eighteen thousand
pounds to that purpose. I have hitherto been able
to prevent this, but as it is of indispensable import-
ance to me to leave this place immediately to prepare
for my examination, for which I have pledged my-
self the ensuing term, which is at hand, it is possible,
after I have left it, that contrary ideas will prevail.
Efforts have been made to introduce a species of
negotiable certificates, which I have strenuously op-
Private Correspondence 265
posed. It has not yet taken place, but I am not
clear how the matter will terminate.
Should the bill for the eighteen thousand pounds
go out in its present form, I cannot hope that it will
produce in the treasury above half the sum, such are
the vices of our present mode of collection.
A bill has also passed the Assembly for collecting
arrearages of taxes, payable in specie, bank notes,
your notes, old continental emissions at one hundred
and twenty-eight for one, and a species of certificates
issued by the State for the purchase of horses. This is
now before the Senate. The arrearages are very large.
Both Houses have unanimously passed a set of
resolutions, to be transmitted to Congress and the
several States, proposing a convention of the States,
to enlarge the powers of Congress and vest them with
funds. I think this a very eligible step, though I
doubt of the concurrence of the other States; but I
am certain without it they will never be brought to
co-operate in any reasonable or effectual plan. Urge
reforms or exertions, and the answer constantly is:
What avails it for one State to make them without
the concert of the others ? It is in vain to expose the
futility of this reasoning; it is founded in all those
passions which have the strongest influence on the
human mind.
The Legislature have also appointed, at my in-
stance, a committee to devise, in its recess, a more
effectual system of taxation, and to communicate
with me on this subject. A good deal will depend
on the success of this attempt. Convinced of the
absurdity of multiplying taxes in the present mode,
266 Alexander Hamilton
where, in effect, the payment is voluntary, and the
money received exhausted in the collection, I have
labored chiefly to instil the necessity of a change in
the plan, and, though not so rapidly as the exigency
of public affairs requires, truth seems to be making
some progress.
There is other appropriation to the use of Con-
gress than of the eighteen thousand pounds.
I shall, as soon as possible, give you a full and just
view of the situation and temper of this State. This
cannot be till after my intended examination; that
over, I shall lay myself out in every way that can
promote your views and the public good.
I am informed you have an appointment to make
of a Commissioner of Accounts for this State. Per-
mit me to suggest the expediency of choosing a citi-
zen of the State ; a man who, to the qualifications
requisite for the execution of the office, adds an in-
fluence in its affairs. I need not particularize the
reasons of this suggestion. In my next I will also
take the liberty to mention some characters.
I omitted mentioning that the two Houses have
also passed a bill, authorizing Congress to adjust the
quotas of the States on equitable principles, agree-
ably to your recommendation. I enclose you the
bond executed jointly with General Schuyler.
TO GOVERNOR CLINTON
Albany, August 3, 1782.
Sir:
I have lately received a letter from the Super-
intendent of Finance, inclosing a copy of a circu-
Private Correspondence 267
lar- letter from him to the several States, dated
twenty-fifth July, '8i, in which he requests informa-
tion on the following important points.
"What supplies, of every kind, money, provisions,
forage, transportation, etc., have been furnished by
this State to the United States, since the eighteenth
of March, 1780."
"The amount of the money in the treasury; the
sums expected to be there; the times they will
probably be brought in; the appropriations."
"The amount of the different paper currencies in
the State; the probable increase, or decrease, of
each; and the respective rates of depreciation.' '
'The Acts passed since the eighteenth of March,
1780, for raising taxes, furnishing supplies, etc.; the
manner they have been executed; the time neces-
sary for them to operate ; the consequences of their
operation ; the policy of the State relative to laying,
assessing, levying, and collecting taxes."
In his letter, which is circular ', to the Receivers, he
says the answers he has received to these inquiries
are few and short of the object; and he therefore
urges me to take the most speedy and effectual means
in my power, to enable him to form a proper judg-
ment on such of the subjects referred to as the actual
state of things renders it important to know.
In compliance with this, I request the favor of
your Excellency to inform me what steps have been
taken on the several heads of which the above is an
abstract; and what progress has been made in the
business ; particularly with respect to the first arti-
cle. I shall also be much obliged to you to direct
268 Alexander Hamilton
Mr. Holt to furnish me, without delay, with the Acts
mentioned in the inclosed list.
Your Excellency must have been too sensible of
the necessity of enabling the Director of the Finances
of the United States to form a just judgment of the
true state of our affairs, to have omitted any measure
in your power to procure the fullest information on
the several matters submitted to you: and I am
persuaded the business is in such a train that little
will be left for me to do.
I entreat you will do me the honor to let me hear
from you as soon as possible on the subject.
It would promote the public business, if you would
be so good as to direct Mr. Banker to supply me with
such information as I might call upon him for. He
is very obliging, but without some authority for the
purpose, there is a delicacy in calling upon him. I
wrote at the same time to Mr. Holt, printer for the
State, desiring him to forward me the copies of
the Acts above mentioned ; and telling him that if the
Governor did not make satisfaction, I would do it.
These Acts were all those relative to finance and
supply, from March 18, 1780, to this time.
TO THE COUNTY TREASURERS
Albany, August 5, 1782.
Sir:
It will be of great utility to the State, and essential
to the execution of my instructions from the Super-
intendent of Finance, that I should be able to ascer-
tain, as speedily as possible, the expense attending
Private Correspondence 269
the collection of taxes within this State. In order
to this, I shall be much obliged to you to send me
without delay an account of what you have received
in your county, since the beginning of the year '8o to
this time, as well for the taxes laid for county pur-
poses, as for those imposed by the Legislature; and
of the expenses of every kind attending the collec-
tion; those of the supervisors, assessors, the allow-
ance to the collectors and to myself.
When I assure you I want this information for an
important purpose, I doubt not you will forward it
to me as speedily as it can be prepared, and with
as much accuracy as circumstances will permit ; by
doing which you will serve the public and oblige,
sir, etc.
TO ROBERT MORRIS
Albany, August 13, 1782.
Sir:
I promised you in former letters to give you a full
view of the situation and temper of this State. I
now sit down to execute that task.
You have already in your possession a pretty just
picture of the State, drawn by the Legislature, per-
haps too highly colored in some places, but just, and,
in the main, true.
It is the opinion of the most sensible men with
whom I converse, who are best acquainted with the
circumstances of the State, and who are least dis-
posed to exaggerate its distress as an excuse for in-
activity, that its faculties for revenue are diminished
at least two thirds.
270 Alexander Hamilton
It will not be difficult to conceive this when we
consider that five out of the fourteen counties of
which the State is composed, including the capital,
are in the hands of the enemy; that two and part of
a third have revolted; two others have been deso-
lated the greater part by the ravages of the enemy
and of our own troops, and the remaining four have
more or less suffered partial injuries from the same
causes. Adding the fragments of some to repair the
losses of others, the efficient property, strength, and
force of the State will consist in little more than four
counties.
In the distribution of taxes before the war, the
city of New York used to be rated at one third of the
whole; but this was too high, owing probably to
the prevailing of the country influence. Its proper
proportion I should judge to have been about one
fourth, which serves further to illustrate the prob-
able decrease of the State.
Our population, indeed, is not diminished in the
same degree, as many of the inhabitants of the dis-
membered and ruined counties, who have left their
habitations, are dispersed through those which re-
main; and it would seem that the labor of the ad-
ditional hands ought to ensure the culture and value
of these. But there are many deductions to be
made from this apparent advantage: the numbers
that have recruited the British army; those that
have been furnished to ours ; the emigrations to Ver-
mont and to the neighboring States, less harassed
by the war, and affording better encouragements to
industry, both which have been considerable.
Private Correspondence 271
Besides these circumstances, many of the fugitive
families are a burthen for their substance upon the
State. The fact is, labor is much dearer than be-
fore the war.
This State has certainly made, in the course of the
war, great exertions, and, upon many occasions, of
the most exhausting kind. This has sometimes
happened from want of judgment; at others, from
necessity. When the army, as has too often been
the case, has been threatened with some fatal calam-
ity— for want of provisions, forage, the means of
transportation, etc., — in consequence of pressing
applications from the Commander-in-Chief, the
Legislature have been obliged to have recourse to
extraordinary expedients to answer the pressing
emergency, which have both distressed and disgusted
the people. There is no doubt that, with a prudent
and systematic administration, the State might have
rendered more benefit to the common cause, with
less inconvenience to itself, than by all its forced
efforts; but there, as everywhere else, we have
wanted experience and knowledge. And, indeed,
had this not been the case, every thing everywhere
has been so radically wrong, that it was difficult, if
not impossible, for any one State to be right.
The exposed situation of the frontier, and the fre-
quent calls upon the inhabitants for personal service
on each extremity, by interfering with industry, have
contributed to impoverish the State and fatigue the
people.
Deprived of foreign trade, our internal traffic is
carried on upon the most disadvantageous terms.
272 Alexander Hamilton
It divides itself into three branches : with the city of
New York, with Jersey and Pennsylvania, and with
New England.
That with New York consists chiefly of luxuries
on one part and returns of specie on the other. I
imagine we have taken goods from that place to the
amount of near £30,000. The Legislature passed a
severe law to prevent this intercourse, but what will
laws avail against the ingenuity and intrepidity of
avarice?
From Jersey and Pennsylvania we take about
£30,000 more, and we pay almost entirely in cash.
From Massachusetts and other parts of New Eng-
land we purchase to the amount of about £50,000,
principally in tea and salt. (The articles of tea and
salt alone cost this State the annual sum of £60,000.)
We sell to these States to the value of about £30,000.
The immense land transportation, of which the
chief part is carried on by the subjects of other
States, is a vast incumbrance upon our trade.
The principal article we have to throw in the op-
posite scale is the expenditures of the army. Mr.
Sands informs me that the contractors for the main
army and West Point lay out in this State at the
rate of about $60,000 a year; Mr. Duer, for these
northern posts, about $30,000. If the Quartermas-
ter-General expends as much more in his depart-
ment, the whole will amount to about $180,000. I
speak of what is paid for in specie, or such paper as
answers the purpose of specie. These calculations
cannot absolutely be relied on, because the data are
necessarily uncertain, but they are the result of the
Private Correspondence 273
best information I can obtain, and, if near the truth,
prove that the general balance of trade is against
us — a plain symptom of which is an extreme and
universal scarcity of money.
The situation of the State with respect to its in-
ternal government is not more pleasing. Here we
find the general disease which infects all our consti-
tutions— an excess of popularity. There is no order
that has a will of its own. The inquiry constantly
is what will please, not what will benefit the people.
In such a government there can be nothing but
temporary expenditure, fickleness, and folly.
But the point of view in which this subject will be
interesting to you is that which relates to our finances.
I gave you, in a former letter, a sketch of our plan
of taxation, but I will now be more particular.
The general principle of it is apparent, according
to circumstances and abilities collectively considered.
The ostensible reason for adopting this vague basis
was a desire of equality. It was pretended that this
could not be obtained so well by any fixed tariff of
taxable property, as by leaving it to the discretion
of persons chosen by the people themselves to deter-
mine the ability of each citizen. But perhaps the
true reason was a desire to discriminate between the
Whigs and Tories. This chimerical attempt at per-
fect equality has resulted in total inequality, or
rather this narrow disposition to overburthen a par-
ticular class of citizens (living under the protection
of the government) has been retorted upon the con-
trivers or their friends, wherever that class has been
numerous enough to preponderate in the election of
VOL. IX.— 18.
274 Alexander Hamilton
the officers who were to execute the law. The ex-
terior figure a man makes, the decency and mean-
ness of his manner of living, the personal friendships
or dislikes of the assessors, have much more share in
determining what individuals shall pay, than the
proportion of property.
The Legislature first assesses or quotas the several
counties. Here the evil begins — the members cabal
and intrigue to throw the burthen off their respective
constituents. Address and influence, more than con-
siderations of real ability, prevail. A great deal of
time is lost, and a great deal of expense incurred,
before the juggle is ended and the necessary com-
promise made.
The supervisors, of whom there are upon an aver-
age sixteen in each county, meet at the notification
of the county clerk, and assign their proportions to
the subdivisions of the county, and, in the distribu-
tion, play over the same game which was played in
the Legislature.
The assessors, assembled on a like notification, ac-
cording to their fancies, determine the proportion of
each individual ; a list of which being made out and
signed by the supervisors, is a warrant to the collect-
ors. There are near an hundred upon an average
in each country. The allowance to these officers
has been various. It is now six shillings a day, be-
sides expenses. In some cases they have been lim-
ited to a particular time for executing the business;
but, in general, it is left to their discretion, and the
greater part of them are not in a hurry to complete
it, as they have a conpensation for their trouble and
Private Correspondence 275
live better at the public charge than they are ac-
customed to do at their own. The consequence is
not only delay but a heavy expense.
It now remains for the collectors to collect the tax,
and it is the duty of the supervisors to see that they
do it. Both these offices are elective as well as that
of the assessor; and, of course, there is little dis-
position to risk the displeasure of those who elect.
They have no motive of interest to stimulate them
to their duty equivalent to the inconvenience of per-
forming it. The collector is entitled to the trifling
compensation of sometimes four, sometimes six
pence, out of each pound he collects, and is liable to
the trifling penalty of twenty or twenty-five pounds
for neglect of duty. The supervisors have no in-
terest at all in the collections, and it will not on this
account appear extraordinary, that, with continual
delinquencies in the collection, there has never been
a single prosecution. As I observed on a former oc-
casion, if the collector happens to be a zealous man
and lives in a zealous neighborhood, the taxes are
collected; if either of these requisites are wanting,
the collection languishes or entirely fails.
When the taxes are collected they are paid to
the county treasurer, an officer chosen by the super-
visors. The collectors are responsible to him also;
but as he is allowed only one fourth or one half per
cent., he has no sufficient inducement to incur the
odium of compelling them to do their duty.
The county treasurer pays what he receives in to
the State treasurer, who has an annual salary of
£300, and has nothing to do but to receive and pay
276 Alexander Hamilton
out according to the appropriation of the Legisla-
ture.
Notwithstanding the obvious defects of this sys-
tem; notwithstanding experience has shown it to
be iniquitous and inefficient, and that all attempts
to amend it without totally changing it are fruitless ;
notwithstanding there is a pretty general discontent
from the inequality of the taxes, still ancient habits,
ignorance, the spirit of the times, the opportunity
afforded to some popular characters of screening
themselves by intriguing with the assessors, have
hitherto proved an overmatch for common sense and
common justice, as well as the manifest advantage of
the State and of the United States.
The temper of the State, which I shall now de-
scribe, may be considered under two heads — that of
the rulers and that of the people.
The rulers are generally zealous in the common
cause, though their zeal is oftentimes misdirected.
They are jealous of their own power; but yet, as
this State is the immediate theatre of the war, these
apprehensions of danger, and an opinion that they
are obliged to do more than their neighbors, make
them very willing to part with power in favor of the
Federal Government. This last opinion and an idea
added to it, that they have no credit for their past
exertions, has put them out of humor and indisposed
many of them for future exertions. I have heard
several assert that in the present situation of this
State, nothing more ought to be expected than that
it maintain its own government and keep up its
quota of troops.
Private Correspondence 277
This sentiment, however, is as yet confined to
few, but it is too palpable not to make proselytes.
The rulers of this State are attached to the alli-
ance, as are Whigs generally. They have also great
confidence in you personally, but pretty general ex-
ception has been taken to a certain letter of yours
written, I believe, in the winter or spring. The idea
imbibed is that it contains a reflection upon them
for their past exertions. I have on every account
combated this impression, which could not fail to
have an ill effect, and I mention it to you with free-
dom, because it is essential you should know the
temper of the States respecting yourself.
As to the people, in the early periods of the war,
near one half of them were avowedly more attached
to Great Britain than to their liberty, but the energy
of the government has subdued all opposition. The
State by different means has been purged of a large
part of its malcontents; but there still remains, I
dare say, a third, whose secret wishes are on the side
of the enemy; the remainder sigh for peace, mur-
mur at taxes, clamor at their rulers, change one in-
capable man for another more incapable, and, I fear,
if left to themselves, would, too many of them, be
willing to purchase peace at any price — not from in-
clination to Great Britain or disaffection to inde-
pendence, but from mere supineness and avarice.
f The speculation of evils from the claims of Great
Britain gives way to the pressure of inconveniences
actually felt, and we required the event which has
lately happened — the recognition of our independ-
f See page 280.
278 Alexander Hamilton
ence by the Dutch — to give a new spring to the
public hopes and the public passions. This has had
a good effect, and if the Legislature can be brought
to adopt a wise plan for its finances, we may put the
people in better humor, and give a more regular and
durable movement to the machine. The people of
this State, as far as my observation goes, have as
much firmness in their make and as much submission
to government as those of any part of the Union. It
remains for me to give you an explicit opinion of
what is practicable for this State to do.
Even with a judicious plan of taxation I do not
think the State can afford, or the people will bear, to
pay more than £70,000 or £80,000 a year. In its
entire and flourishing state, according to my mode
of calculation it could not have exceeded £230,000
or £240,000; and reduced as it is, with the wheels of
circulation so exceedingly clogged for want of com-
merce and a sufficient medium, more than I have
said cannot be expected. Past experience will not
authorize a more flattering conclusion. Out of this
is to be deducted the expense of the interior adminis-
tration and the money necessaries for the levies of
men. The first amounts to about £15,000, as you
will perceive by the inclosed slate; but I suppose
the Legislature would choose to retain £20,000. The
money hitherto yearly expended in recruits has
amounted to between £20,000 and £30,000; but on
a proper plan £10,000 might suffice. There would
then remain £40,000 for your department.
But this is on a supposition of a change of system;
for with the present I doubt there being paid into
Private Correspondence 279
the Continental treasury one third of that sum. I
am endeavoring to collect materials for greater cer-
tainty upon this subject. But the business of sup-
plies has been so diversified, lodged in such a variety
of independent hands, and so carelessly transacted,
that it is hardly possible to get any tolerable idea of
the gross and net product.
With the help of these materials I shall strive
to convince the committee, when they meet, that
a change of measures is essential; if they enter cor-
dially into right views, we may succeed; but I con-
fess I fear more than I hope.
I have taken every step in my power to procure
the information you have desired in your letter of
July 1 8th. The most material part of it, an ac-
count of the supplies furnished since March, '8o, has
been committed to Col. Hay. I have written to him
in pressing terms to accelerate the preparation.
You will perceive, sir, I have neither flattered the
State nor encouraged high expectations. I thought
it my duty to exhibit things as they are, not as they
ought to be. I shall be sorry to give you an ill opin-
ion of the State for want of equal candor in the
representations of others; for, however disagreeable
the reflection, I have too much reason to believe that
the true picture of other States would be, in pro-
portion to their circumstances, equally unpromising.
All my inquiries and all that appears induce this
opinion. I intend this letter in confidence to your-
self, and therefore I endorse it private.
Before I conclude I will say a word on a point that
possibly you could wish to be informed about. The
280 Alexander Hamilton
contract up this way is executed generally to the
satisfaction of the officers and soldiers, which is
more meritorious in the contractor, as in all prob-
ability it will be to him a losing undertaking.1
TO JOHN LAURENS 3
August 15, 1782.
I received with great pleasure, my dear Laurens,
the letter which you wrote me in last. Your
wishes in one respect are gratified. This State has
pretty unanimously elected me to Congress. My
time of service commences in November. It is not
probable it will result in what you mention. I hope
it is too late. We have great reason to flatter our-
selves. Peace on our own terms is upon the carpet.
The making it is in good hands. It is said your
father is exchanged for Cornwallis, and gone to Paris
to meet the other commissioners, and that Gran-
ville, on the part of England, has made a second trip
there; in the last instance, vested with plenipoten-
tiary powers.
I fear there may be obstacles, but I hope they may
be surmounted.
Peace made, my dear friend, a new scene opens.
The object then will be to make our independence a
blessing. To do this we must secure our Union on
1 This long and interesting letter is now first printed entire from the
Hamilton papers in the State Department. A small portion beginning
at the sentence, "The speculation of evils," marked thus f» [page 277]
and continuing to the end, has been printed in the edition of 1850, vol.
i., 295.
2 In those days of slow mails, this letter probably never reached
Laurens, who fell near the Combahee in a skirmish Aug. 27th
Private Correspondence 281
solid foundations — a herculean task, — and to effect
which, mountains of prejudice must be levelled! It
requires all the virtue and all the abilities of the
country. Quit your sword, my friend; put on the
toga. Come to Congress. We know each other's
sentiments; our views are the same. We have
fought side by side to make America free; let us
hand in hand struggle to make her happy. Re-
member me to General Greene with all the warmth
of sincere attachment. Yours forever.1
TO GOVERNOR CLINTON
Albany, August 25, 1782.
Sir:
By advices from Philadelphia, I find that the
present is a period rather critical on the subject of
money, and concentres a variety of demands which
it is not easy to satisfy.
It becomes, therefore, of importance to the Fi-
nancier to avail himself of every immediate resource.
This induces me to request you will be so good as
to inform me whether there is any near prospect of
obtaining the loan directed to be applied to Con-
tinental use; also, whether any measures can be
taken to accelerate the collection of the late tax im-
posed for the same use.
I would willingly write to the county treasurers
myself, but, unauthorized as I am, I could expect no
good effect from it.2
1 Reprinted from the History of the Republic, ii., 300.
2 Now first printed from the Hamilton papers in the State Depart-
ment.
282 Alexander Hamilton
TO ROBERT MORRIS
Albany, August 25, 1782.
Sir:
This letter serves only to transmit the two last
papers. I wish the measures I have taken to satisfy
you on the points you desire to be informed of had
been attended to with so much success as to enable
me now to transmit the result. But I find a sin-
gular confusion in the accounts kept by the public
officers from whom I must necessarily derive my in-
formation, and a singular dilatoriness in complying
with my application, partly from indolence and
partly from jealousy of the office. I hope, by the
next post, to transmit you information on some
particulars.
TO COLONEL RICHARD K. MEADE
Albany, August 27, 1782.
I thank you, my dear Meade, for your letter of the
first of this month, which you will perceive has
travelled much faster than has been usual with our
letters. Our correspondence hitherto has been un-
fortunate ; nor, in fact, can either of us compliment
himself on his punctuality, but you were right in
concluding that, however indolence or accident may
interrupt our intercourse, nothing will interrupt our
friendship. Mine for you is built on a solid basis of
a full conviction that you deserve it, and that it is
reciprocal; and it is the more firmly fixed because
you have few competitors. Experience is a con-
tinual comment on the worthlessness of the human
Private Correspondence 283
race ; and the few exceptions we find have the greater
right to be valued in proportion as they are rare. I
know few men estimable, fewer amiable; and when
I meet with one of the last description, it is not in
my power to withhold my affection.
[You reproach me with not having said enough
about our little stranger. When I wrote last I was
not sufficiently acquainted with him to give you his
character. I may now assure you that your daugh-
ter, when she sees him, will not consult you about
the choice, or will only do it in respect to the rules
of decorum. He is truly a very fine young gentle-
man, the most agreeable in his conversation and
manners of any I ever knew, nor less remarkable for
his intelligence and sweetness of temper. You are
not to imagine, by my beginning with his mental
qualifications, that he is defective in personal. It
is agreed on all hands that he is handsome; his
features are good, his eye is not only sprightly and
expressive, but full of benignity. His attitude in
sitting, is, by connoisseurs, esteemed graceful, and he
has a method of waving his hand that announces the
future orator. He stands, however, rather awk-
wardly, and as his legs have not all the delicate
slimness of his father's, it is feared he may never
excel as much in dancing, which is probably the only
accomplishment in which he will not be a model.
If he has any fault in manners, he laughs too much.
He has now passed his seventh month. I am glad
to find your prospect of being settled approaches.
I am sure you will realize all the happiness you
promise yourself with your amiable partner. I wish
284 Alexander Hamilton
fortune had not cast our lots at such a distance.
Mrs. Meade, you, Betsey, and myself would make
a most affectionate and most happy partie quarre.]
As to myself, I shall sit down in New York when
it opens; and this period, we are told, approaches.
No man looks forward to a peace with more pleasure
than I do; though no man would sacrifice less to it
than myself if I were not convinced that the people
sigh for peace.
I have been studying the law for some months,
and have lately been licensed as an attorney. I wish
to prepare myself by October for examination as a
counsellor; but some public avocation may possibly
prevent me.
I had almost forgotten to tell you that I have been
pretty unanimously elected, by the Legislature of
this State, a member of Congress, to begin to serve
in November. I do not hope to reform the State,
although I shall endeavor to do all the good I can.
[Suffer Betsey and me to present our love to Mrs.
Meade. She has a sisterly affection for you. My
respects, if you please, to Mr. and Mrs. Fitzhugh.
God bless you.] x
TO ROBERT MORRIS
Albany, August 31, 1782.
Sir:
I send you herewith all the acts of the Legislature
of this State since the government has been organ-
x This letter was partly printed in the edition of 1850. It is now
completed from the History of the Republic, ii., 305. The added
portions are inclosed in brackets.
Private Correspondence 285
ized; on the margin of which I have numbered all
the acts relative to the matters you mention in your
letter of July, '8i, to the States agreeable to the
within list. I inclose you the papers of the last
week.
The indolence of some and the repugnancy of
others make every trifle lag so much in the execu-
tion, that I am not able at this time to give you any
further information. I wish to hear from you on
the subject of my former letters previous to the
meeting of the committee — the 15 th of the ensuing
month.
TO THE COUNTY TREASURERS
Albany, Sept. 7, 1782.
Sir:
The fifteenth of this month is the period fixed for
the payment of the tax imposed at the last meeting
of the Legislature for the use of the United States.
The public exigencies and the reputation of the
State require that every exertion should be made to
collect this tax with punctuality and dispatch; and
it is therefore my duty to urge you that you employ
the powers vested in you, and all your personal in-
fluence, to induce the collectors to expedite the col-
lection with all the zeal and vigor in their power.
While the other States are all doing something, as a
citizen of this, I shall feel a sensible mortification in
being obliged to continue publishing to the others,
that this State pays nothing in support of the war,
as I have been under the necessity of doing the last
286 Alexander Hamilton
two months. Besides this, and other still more
weighty considerations, a regard to the subjects of
the State itself demands every exertion in our power.
They have parted with their property on the public
faith, and it is impossible for the public to fulfil its
engagements to individuals, unless it is enabled to
do it by the equal and just contributions of the
community at large.
TO ROBERT MORRIS
Albany, Sept. 7, 1782.
Sir:
I have had the inclosed ready for some time; but
in hopes of receiving the returns of the certificates
mentioned in memorandum B, I delayed sending the
present sketch. Having even received no answers
from some of the parties who live at a distance from
me, I suspect they have done their business in so
disorderly a manner (to say nothing worse of it)
that they are at a loss how to render the accounts;
and I have therefore concluded not to detain any
longer what I have procured.
I do not take the step mentioned in memorandum
A, because I doubted its propriety. It might raise
expectations about the old money, which, possibly,
it may not enter into your plans to raise; and, be-
sides this, by knowing what has been called in, in
each State (which, from the sketch I send you, will
appear as to this), you can determine the balance of
omissions remaining out. except what may have
worn out and been accidentally destroyed. If you
Private Correspondence 287
desire this step to be taken, I will obey your com-
mands.
I have said nothing of the rates of depreciation,
because I imagine your letter, written in July, '8i,
had reference to the rates at which the money was
then actually circulating, and the circulation has
now totally ceased. The laws I sent you by the last
post will inform you of the rates fixed at different
periods by the Legislature: forty, seventy-five, and,
lastly, one hundred and twenty-eight. I am obliged
to infer there is a studied backwardness in the officers
of the State, who ought to give me the information
you require respecting the supplies of different kinds
which have been furnished to the use of the United
States. Indeed, I find on inquiry, that their joint
information will not be so full as to satisfy your in-
tentions ; and that this cannot be done till you have
appointed a commissioner of accounts, authorized to
enter into all the details, aided by some legislat-
ive arrangement which may be obtained the next
session.
TO TIMOTHY PICKERING J
Albany, Sept. 7, 1782.
Dear Sir:
I this day received your letter of the 20th August.
Mr. Morris has advised me of the bills you describe,
and directed my purchasing them, together with his
notes, and the bank notes, with what money shall
come into my hands on public account. They are
1 The well-known Massachusetts soldier and statesman ; at this time
quarter-master-general.
288 Alexander Hamilton
now beginning to collect the tax imposed for the use
of the United States, though I can as yet form no
judgment with what success or expedition. I shall
with pleasure give you the information you ask, but
I would rather wish to be excused from anticipation
by previous deposits in my hands, as that will, in
some measure, pledge me to give a preference to the
bills deposited, and may hereafter expose me to a
charge of partiality. There have been several appli-
cations to me for a similar anticipation, which I
have avoided, reserving to myself the power of pay-
ing the bills as they shall be presented, and in pro-
portion to the nearness or remoteness of the periods
of payments.
You may, however, depend that I shall be happy
to assist your department, and will keep in view
your present request. I hope towards the latter end
of the month I shall receive something considerable
on the late tax.
TO ROBERT MORRIS
Albany, Sept. 14, 1782.
Sir:
I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of
your letter of the 29th of August, the contents of
which shall be executed.
I have just received by the post accounts of the
specific supplies furnished by the State, copies of
which I shall prepare to be transmitted to you by
the next post, as I am to return the originals, which
are for the inspection of the Legislature. I hope to
add to these accounts of the moneys supplied.
Private Correspondence 289
I have written to you a number of letters since
my journey to Poughkeepsie, of which, as they con-
tain some things of a confidential nature, I am not
without anxiety to learn the safe arrival.
I should also have been happy to have received
your instructions against the meeting of the com-
mittee, which is to take place to-morrow. As they
will have other business, if I hear from you by the
next post, I shall not be too late. I am at a loss to
know whether I ought to press the establishment of
permanent funds or not; though, unless I receive
your instructions, following my own apprehensions
of what are probably your views, I shall dwell on
this article.
I inclose you a copy of the letter of the Governor,
of the 2d inst., from which you will see his hopes.
Mine are not so good. In this vicinity, always de-
linquent, little is doing.
TO ROBERT MORRIS
Albany, Sept. 21, 1782.
Sir:
The hurry in which I wrote to you by the last
post prevented my examining particularly the papers
which I informed you I had received. On a more
careful inspection of them I found them not so com-
plete as I had hoped. There is a general statement of
specific supplies; but the returns referred to in that
for the particulars were by some mistake omitted.
I have written for them, but they have not yet
VOL. IX.— 19.
290 Alexander Hamilton
arrived ; when they do I shall lose no time in forward-
ing them.
I observe there is nothing respecting transporta-
tion, and there is a part of the supplies for the period
before Colonel Hay came into office which is esti-
mated on a scale of proportion — too vague a method
to be satisfactory. I have urged him to send me an
account of the transportation, and to collect, as
speedily as possible, official returns of the supplies
above mentioned.
There is a practice obtaining, which appears to me
to contravene your views. The contractors, I am
informed, have gotten into a method of carrying
your bills immediately to the collectors and drawing
the specie out of their hands, by which means the
paper never goes into circulation at all, but passes,
so to speak, immediately out of one hand of the
public into the other. The people, therefore, can
never be familiarized to the paper, nor can it ever
obtain a general currency.
If the specie were to come in to the receivers, and
the contractors were left under a necessity of exert-
ing their influence to induce the inhabitants to take
your notes, to be afterwards redeemed by the re-
ceivers agreeably to your plan, this would gradually
accustom the people to place confidence in the
notes, and though the circulation at first should be
momentary, it might come to be more permanent.
I am in doubt whether, on the mere speculation of
an evil, without your instructions, I ought to take
any step to prevent this practice. For, should I
forbid the exchange, it might possibly cause a sus-
Private Correspondence 291
picion that there was a preference of the paper to
the specie, which might injure its credit.
I have thought of a method to prevent, without
forbidding it in direct terms. This was to require
each collector to return the names of the persons
from whom he received taxes, and in different col-
umns specify the kind of money, whether specie,
your notes, or bank notes, in which the tax was paid,
giving the inhabitants receipts accordingly, and pay-
ing in the money in the same species in which it was
received. This would cover the object.
I have tried to prevail upon the county treasurer
of this place to instruct the collectors accordingly;
but the great aim of all these people is to avoid
trouble, and he affected to consider the matter as a
Herculean labor. Nor will it be done without a
legislative injunction.
A method of this kind would tend much to check
fraud in the collectors, and would have many good
consequences.
I thought it my duty, at any rate, to apprise you
of the practice, that, if my apprehensions are right,
it may not be continued without control. I have
reason to believe it is very extensive — by no means
confined to this State.
Permit me to make one more observation. Your
notes, though in credit with the merchants by way
of remittance, do not enter far into ordinary circula-
tion, and this principally on account of their size;
which even makes them inconvenient for paying
taxes. The taxes of very few amount to twenty
dollars a single tax; and though the farmers might
292 Alexander Hamilton
combine to sell their produce for the notes, to pay
the taxes jointly; yet this is not always convenient,
and will seldom be practised. If the notes were, in
considerable part, of five eight, or ten dollars, their
circulation would be far more general; the mer-
chants would, even in their retail operations, give
specie in exchange for balances, which few of them
care to do, or can do, with the larger notes ; though
they are willing to take them for their goods.
TO ROBERT MORRIS
September 28, 1782.
Sir:
I have been honored this week with your letters
of the 28th August, 6th, 12th, and 17th instant,
with their inclosures.
It gives me the most real pleasure to find that my
past communications have met with your appro-
bation; and I feel a particular satisfaction in the
friendly confidence which your letters manifest.
I am persuaded that substantial reasons have de-
termined your choice in a particular instance to
Doctor Tillotson; and I am flattered by the atten-
tion you have obligingly paid to my recommenda-
tions of Col. Malcolm and Mr. Lawrence. Those
gentlemen are now here. They make you the warm-
est acknowledgments for your offer, but decline leav-
ing the State ; which, indeed, is not compatible with
the present prospects of either of them.
I am glad to have had an opportunity of perusing
your letter to this State, at which so much excep-
Private Correspondence 293
tion has been taken ; because it has confirmed me in
what I presumed, that there has been much unjust-
ifiable ill-humor upon the occasion. I will make
use of the knowledge I have to combat misrepre-
sentation.
Yours of the 29th of July, to Congress, is full of
principles and arguments as luminous as they are
conclusive. 'T is to be lamented that they have not
had more weight than we are to infer from the mo-
mentary expedient adopted by the resolutions of
the 4th and 10th; which will, alone, not be satisfac-
tory to the public creditors; and I fear will only
tend to embarrass your present operations, without
answering the end in view. The more I see, the
more I find reason for those who love this country
to weep over its blindness.
The committee on the subject of taxation are met.
Some have their plans, and they must protect their
own children, however misshapen; others have none,
but are determined to find fault with all. I expect
little, but I shall promote any thing, though imper-
fect, that will mend our situation.
The public creditors in this quarter have had a
meeting, and appointed a committee to devise meas-
ures. The committee will report petitions to Con-
gress, the Legislature, and an address to the public
creditors in other parts of the State to appoint per-
sons to meet in convention, to unite in some common
measure. I believe they will also propose a general
convention of all the creditors in the diiferent States.
294 Alexander Hamilton
TO ROBERT MORRIS
Albany, October 5, 1782.
Sir:
In my last I informed you that the committee ap-
pointed by the Legislature on the subject of taxation
were together. In spite of my efforts, they have
parted without doing any thing decisive. They
have, indeed, agreed upon several matters, and
those of importance, but they have not reduced
them to the form of a report, which, in fact, leaves
every thing afloat, to be governed by the impres-
sions of the moment when the Legislature meets.
The points agreed upon are these: That there
shall be an actual valuation of land, and a tax of so
much in the pound, — the great diversity in the quali-
ties of land would not suffer them to listen to an
estimated valuation, or to a tax by the quantity,
agreeably to the idea in your late report to Congress :
that there shall be also a tariff of all personal prop-
erty, to be also taxed at so much in the pound ; that
there shall be a specific tax on carriages, clocks,
watches, and other similar articles of luxury; that
money at usury shall be taxed at a fixed rate in the
pound, excluding that which is loaned to the public ;
that houses in all towns shall be taxed at a certain
proportion of the annual rent; that there shall be a
poll-tax on all single men from fifteen upwards ; and
that the collection of the taxes should be advertised
to the lowest bidder, at a fixed rate per cent., bear-
ing all subordinate expenses.
Among other things which were rejected, I pressed
hard for an excise on distilled liquors, but all that
Private Correspondence 295
could be carried on this article was a license on
taverns.
The committee were pretty generally of opinion
that the system of funding for payment of old debts
and for procuring further credit, was wise and in-
dispensable, but a majority thought it would be
unwise in one State to contribute in this way alone.
Nothing was decided on the quantum of taxes
which the State was able to pay; those who went
furthest did not exceed seventy thousand pounds, of
which fifty for the use of the United States.
I send you my cash account, which is for what has
been received in this county. We have not heard
from the others.
TO ROBERT MORRIS
Albany, October 9, 1782.
Sir:
I wrote you a hasty letter by the last post, which
arrived late, and set out very soon after its arrival.
Since that I have received two thousand dollars,
all in your bills on Mr. Swanwick, in favor of Messrs.
Sands & Co. One half the sum is in bills payable
in February next, exchanged by them for specie with
one of the county treasurers. I am sensible there is
an inconvenience in this in different ways, but it
appears by your letter of the 19th of July that you
mean to have those bills received upon the same
footing with your and the bank notes, without re-
gard to the time they have to run. I have, however,
induced the treasurer to write in a manner that I
hope will discourage like exchanges in future without
296 Alexander Hamilton
giving any unfavorable impression. Besides the
inconvenience from this practice, which I mentioned
in a former letter, there is another which I am per-
suaded will result.
People will get into a way of discounting your
bills and notes with the treasurers and collectors, to
the injury of their credit.
Probably you are apprised of a fact which, how-
ever, I think it my duty to mention: It is that the
bank notes pass pretty currently as cash, with a
manifest preference to your notes.
I have not yet received the other papers relative
to the account of supplies I have sent you.
I hope to be able to inclose you a copy of the
address of the public creditors in this town to the
rest of that denomination in this State. It incul-
cates the ideas which ought to prevail.
I have not yet heard of your messenger, Mr. Brown.
I presume his circuit is regulated by your occasional
direction.1
TO DE NOAILLES 2
1782.
Esteem for your talents and acquirements is a
sentiment which, from my earliest acquaintance
\Now first printed from the Hamilton papers in the State Depart-
ment.
3 Louis Marie, Vicomte de Noailles, one of the most brilliant of the
French officers in our Revolution. After his return to France he took
an active part on the popular side in the Revolution, but fled in 1792,
being then with the army, and took refuge in England and afterwards
in the United States. His wife was guillotined in 1794. After the
reign of terror was over he returned to France, had his name erased
from the list of emigres and took service again in the army. In 1803
he was sent to St. Domingo, and on his way thence to Cuba he was
killed in an action with an English corvette.
Private Correspondence 297
with you, my dear Viscount, I have shared in com-
mon with all those who have the happiness of know-
ing you; but a better knowledge of your character
has given it, in my eyes, a more intrinsic merit, and
has attached me to you by a friendship founded upon
qualities as rare as they are estimable. Averse as I
am to professions, I cannot forbear indulging this
declaration, to express to you the pleasure I felt at
receiving (after an inexplicable delay) the letter you
were so obliging as to write me before your depart-
ure from Boston. It was of that kind which is al-
ways produced by those attentions of friends we
value: which, not being invited by circumstances,
nor necessitated by the forms of society, bespeak the
warmth of the heart. At least my partiality for
you makes me fond of viewing it in this light, and I
cherish the opinion.
I was chagrined to find that you left us with an
intention not to return. Though I should be happy
if, by a removal of the war, this country should cease
to be a proper theatre for your exertions, yet, if it
continues to be so, I hope you will find sufficient
motives to engage you to change your resolution.
Wherever you are you will be useful and distin-
guished; but the ardent desire I have of meeting
you again makes me wish America may be your
destination. I would willingly do it in France, as
you invite me to do, but the prospect of this is re-
mote. I must make a more solid establishment here
before I can conveniently go abroad. There is no
country I have a greater curiosity to see, or which I
am persuaded would be so interesting to me as yours.
298 Alexander Hamilton
I should be happy to renew and improve the valu-
able acquaintances from thence, which this war has
given me an opportunity of making; and, though I
could not flatter myself with deriving any advantage
from it, I am persuaded it is there I should meet with
the greatest number of those you describe, who, etc.,
— but considerations of primary importance will
oblige me to submit to the mortification of deferring
my visit.
In the meantime I should be too much the gainer
by communication with you, not gladly to embrace
the offer you so politely make for writing to each
other.
The period, since you left us, has been too barren
of events to enable me to impart any thing worth
attention. The enemy continue in possession of
Charleston and Savannah, and leave us masters of
the rest of the country. General Greene has detached
Wayne to Georgia ; but I believe his views do not ex-
tend beyond the mere possession of the country. It
is said the Assemblies of the two invaded States
are about meeting, to restore the administration
of government. This will be a step to strengthen-
ing the hands of General Greene, and counteracting
the future intrigues of the enemy. Many are san-
guine in believing that all the southern posts will be
evacuated, and that a fleet of transports is actually
gone to bring the garrisons away. For my part, I
have doubts upon the subject. My politics are, that
while the present ministry can maintain their seats
and procure supplies, they will prosecute the war on
the mere chance of events; and that while this is
Private Correspondence 299
the plan, they will not evacuate posts so essential as
points of departure; from whence, on any favorable
turn of affairs, to renew their attack on our most
vulnerable side. Nor will they relinquish objects
that would be so useful to them, should the worst
happen in a final negotiation. Clinton, it is said, is
cutting a canal across New York Island, through the
low grounds, about a mile and a half from the city.
This will be an additional obstacle; but if we have,
otherwise, the necessary means to operate, it will
not be an insurmountable one. I do not hear that
he is constructing any other new works of conse-
quence. To you, who are so thoroughly acquainted
with the military posture of things in this country,
I need not say that the activity of the next cam-
paign must absolutely depend on effectual succors
from France. I am convinced we shall have a
powerful advocate in you. La Fayette, we know,
will bring " the whole house' ' with him if he can.
There has been no material change in our internal
situation since you left us. The capital successes
we have had have served rather to increase the hopes
than the exertions of the particular States. But in
one respect we are in a mending way. Our financier
has hitherto conducted himself with great ability,
has acquired an entire personal confidence, revived
in some measure the public credit, and is conciliating
fast the support of the moneyed men. His opera-
tions have hitherto hinged chiefly on the seasonable
aids from your country; but he is urging the es-
tablishment of permanent funds among ourselves;
and though, from the nature and temper of our
300 Alexander Hamilton
governments, his applications will meet with a dil-
atory compliance, it is to be hoped they will by de-
grees succeed.
The institution of a bank has been very service-
able to him; the commercial interest, finding great
advantages in it, and anticipating much greater, is
disposed to promote the plan; and nothing but
moderate funds, permanently pledged for the secur-
ity of lenders, is wanting to make it an engine of the
most extensive and solid utility. By the last ad-
vices there is reason to believe the delinquent States
will shortly comply with the requisition of Congress
for a duty on our imports. This will be a great
resource to Mr. Morris; but it will not alone be
sufficient.
Upon the whole, however, if the war continues
another year, it will be necessary that Congress
should again recur to the generosity of France for
pecuniary assistance. The plans of the financier
cannot be so matured as to enable us by any possi-
bility to dispense with this ; and if he should fail for
want of support, we must replunge into that con-
fusion and distress which had liked to have proved
fatal to us, and out of which we are slowly emerging.
The cure, on a relapse, would be infinitely more
difficult than ever.
I have given you an uninteresting but a faithful
sketch of our situation. You may expect, from
time to time, to receive from me the progress of our
affairs ; and I know you will overpay me.
Private Correspondence 301
TO GENERAL GREENE
Albany, October 12, 1782.
Dear General:
It is an age since I have either written to you or
received a line from you ; yet I persuade myself you
have not been the less convinced of my affectionate
attachment and warm participation in all those
events which have given you that place in your
country's esteem and approbation which I have
known you to deserve, while your enemies and rivals
were most active in sullying your reputation.
You will perhaps learn before this reaches you
that I have been appointed a member of Congress.
I expect to go to Philadelphia in the ensuing month,
where I shall be happy to correspond with you with
our ancient confidence ; and I shall entreat you not
to confine your observations to military subjects,
but to take in the whole scope of national concerns.
I am sure your ideas will be useful to me and to the
public.
I feel the deepest affliction at the news we have
just received of the loss of our dear and estimable
friend Laurens. His career of virtue is at an end.
How strangely are human affairs conducted, that so
many excellent qualities could not insure a more
happy fate! The world will feel the loss of a man
who has left few like him behind, and America of a
citizen whose heart realized that patriotism of which
others only talk. I shall feel the loss of a friend I
truly and most tenderly loved, and one of a very
small number.
******
302 Alexander Hamilton
TO ROBERT MORRIS
Albany, October 26, 178a.
Sir:
I am honored with your letters of the 5th, 15th,
and 1 6th instant.
The detail you have been pleased to enter into
in that of the 5th exhibits very cogent reasons for
confining yourself to pretty large denominations of
notes. Some of them had occurred to me, others
had not; but I thought it my duty to state to you
the operation which that circumstance had, as in the
midst of the variety and extent of the objects which
occupy your attention, you may not have so good
opportunities of seeing the effect of your plans in
detail. While I acknowledge that your observa-
tions have corrected my ideas upon the subject,
and shown me that there would be danger in gener-
ally lessening the denominations of the paper issued,
I should be uncandid not to add that it still appears
to me there would be a preponderance of advan-
tages in having a part of a smaller amount. I shall
not trouble you at present with any further reasons
for this opinion.
I have immediately on receipt of your letter taken
measures for the publication of your advertisement
in the newspapers of this State.
You will perceive by the enclosed cash account
that, since my last, I have received five and twenty
hundred dollars. This was procured in part of the
loan I mentioned to you. It was chiefly paid to me
in specie, and I have exchanged it with Col. Picker-
ing and Mr. Duer for the notes ; the latter had twelve
Private Correspondence 303
hundred dollars. Taxes collect slowly, but I must
shortly receive two or three hundred pounds more,
of which Mr. Duer will have the principal benefit, as
it appears by your letter to him, that you hoped he
might receive three thousand dollars from me.
As I may shortly set out for Philadelphia, I wish
to surrender to Mr. Tillotson, as soon as you think
proper, the office in which he is to succeed.
TO LAFAYETTE
Albany, Nov. 3, 1782.
Since we parted, my dear Marquis, at Yorktown,
I have received three letters from you; one written
on your way to Boston, two from France. I ac-
knowledge that I have written to you only once, but
the reason has been that I have been taught daily to
expect your return. This I should not have done
from my own calculations, for I saw no prospect but
of an inactive campaign; and you had much better
be intriguing for your hobby-horse at Paris than
loitering away your time here. Yet they seem to be
convinced at headquarters that you were certainly
coming out; and by your letter it appears to have
been your own expectation. I imagine you have
relinquished it by this time.
I have been employed for the last ten months in
rocking the cradle and studying the art of -fleecing
my neighbors. I am now a grave counsellor-at-law,
and shall soon be a grave member of Congress. The
Legislature, at their last session, took it into their
304 Alexander Hamilton
heads to name me, pretty unanimously, one of their
delegates.
I am going to throw away a few months more in
public life, and then retire a simple citizen and good
pater jamilias. I set out for Philadelphia in a few
days. You see the disposition I am in. You are
condemned to run the race of ambition all your life.
I am already tired of the career, and dare to leave it.
But you would not give a pin for my letter unless
politics or war made a part of it. You tell me they
are employed in building a peace, and other accounts
say it is nearly finished. I hope the work may meet
with no interruptions. It is necessary for America,
especially if your army is taken from us, as we are
told will soon be the case. That was an essential
point d'appui, though money was the primum mobile
of our finances, which must now lose the little ac-
tivity lately given them. Our trade is prodigiously
cramped. These States are in no humor for con-
tinuing exertions ; if the war lasts it must be carried
on by external succors. I make no apology for the
inertness of this country. I detest it, but since it
exists I am sorry to see other resources diminish.
Your ministers ought to know best what they are
doing, but if the war goes on and the removal of the
army does not prove an unwise measure, I renounce all
future pretensions to judgment. I think, however,
the circumstances of the enemy oblige them to peace.
We have been hoping that they would abandon
their posts in these States. It no doubt was once in
contemplation, but later appearances are rather am-
biguous. I begin to suspect that if peace is not
Private Correspondence 3°5
made, New York and Charleston — the former at
least — will still be held.
There is no probability that I shall be one of the
Commissioners of Peace. It is a thing I do not de-
sire myself, and which I imagine other people will
not desire.
Our army is now in excellent order, but small.
The temper we are in respecting the alliance, you
will see from public acts. There never was a time
of greater unanimity on that point.
I wish I durst enter into a greater detail with you,
but our cipher is not fit for it, and I fear to trust it in
another shape.
Is there any thing you wish on this side the water?
You know the warmth and sincerity of my attach-
ment. Command me.
I have not been so happy as to see Mr. De Segur.
The title of your friend would have been a title to
every thing in my power to manifest. Adieu.
General and Mrs. Schuyler and Mrs. Hamilton all
join warmly in the most affectionate remembrances
to you.
As to myself, I am in truth,
Yours pour la vie.
I wrote a long letter to the Viscount De Noailles,
whom I also love. Has he received it? Is the
worthy Gouvion well? Has he succeeded? How is
it with our friend Gimat? How is it with General
Du Portail? All those men are men of merit, and
interest my best wishes.
Poor Laurens! He has fallen a sacrifice to his
VOL. IX. — 20.
306 Alexander Hamilton
ardor in a trifling skirmish in South Carolina. You
know how truly I loved him, and will judge how
much I regret him.
I will write you again soon after my arrival at
Philadelphia.
TO THE GOVERNOR OF RHODE ISLAND x
Philadelphia, Dec. n, 1782.
Sir:
Congress are equally affected and alarmed by the
information they have received that the Legislature
of your State, at their last meeting, have refused
their concurrence in establishing a duty on imports.
They consider this measure as so indispensable to the
prosecution of the war, that a sense of duty and re-
gard to the common safety compel them to renew
their efforts to engage a compliance with it. And
in this view they have determined to send a deputa-
tion of three members to your State, as expressed in
the inclosed resolution. The gentleman they have
appointed will be able to lay before you a full and
just representation of public affairs, from which,
they flatter themselves, will result a conviction of
the propriety of their solicitude upon the present
occasion. Convinced by past experience of the zeal
and patriotism of the State of Rhode Island, they
cannot doubt that it will yield to those urgent con-
siderations which flow from a knowledge of our true
situation.
They will only briefly observe that the increasing
discontents of the army, the loud clamors of the pub-
1 At this time William Greene.
Private Correspondence 307
lie creditors, and the extreme disproportion between
the public supplies and the demands of the public
service, are so many invincible arguments for the
fund recommended by Congress. They feel them-
selves unable to devise any other that will be more
efficacious, less exceptionable, or more generally
agreeable; and if this is refused, they anticipate
calamities of the most menacing nature — with this
consolation, however, that they have faithfully dis-
charged their trust, and that the mischiefs which
follow cannot be attributed to them.
A principal object of the proposed fund is to pro-
cure loans abroad. If no security can be held out to
lenders, the success of these must necessarily be very
limited. The last accounts on the subject were not
flattering; and when intelligence shall arrive in Eu-
rope that the State of Rhode Island has disagreed
to the only fund which has yet been devised, there
is every reason to apprehend it will have a fatal in-
fluence upon their future progress.
Deprived of this resource, our affairs must in all
probability hasten to a dangerous crisis, and these
States be involved in greater embarrassments than
they have yet experienced, and from which it may
be much more difficult to emerge. Congress will
only add a request to your Excellency, that if the
Legislature should not be sitting, it may be called
together as speedily as possible, to enable the gen-
tlemen whom they have deputed to perform the pur-
pose of their mission.1
1 This letter was written by Hamilton as one of the committee of
Congress to whom the matter was referred.
308 Alexander Hamilton
TO GOVERNOR CLINTON
Philadelphia, Dec. 18, 1782.
Dear Sir:
I shall very shortly be out of cash, and shall be
much obliged to you to forward me the State allow-
ance. It will answer as well in Mr. Morris' notes as
specie, provided the notes have not more than a
fortnight or so to run. It will be better if they are
due. A disappointment in this will greatly em-
barrass me, and from what your Excellency said, I
take it for granted it cannot happen. Nothing new
except a probable account of the evacuation of
Charleston.1
TO GOVERNOR CLINTON
Philadelphia, Jan. 12, 1783.
Sir:
I am honored with your Excellency's letter of the
29th of December. I have received an order from
Colonel Hay on Mr. Sands, which I have no doubt
will shortly be paid. I have felt no inconvenience
from not having the money sooner.
Since my last to you we have received no further
accounts from Europe, so that we remain in the
same uncertainty with respect to the negotiations
for peace. Whether it will take place or not is a
problem of difficult solution. The duplicity and un-
steadiness for which Lord Shelburne is remarkable
will not justify any confidence in his intentions ; and
the variety of interests to be conciliated in a treaty
1 Reprinted from the History of the Republic, iii., 7.
Private Correspondence 309
of peace, with the best dispositions on all sides, must
render it a work of difficulty. I suspect too the
Spaniards and the Dutch will have large demands.
We have now here a deputation from the army,
and feel the mortification of a total disability to
comply with their just expectations. If, however,
the matter is taken up in a proper manner, I think
their application may be turned to a good account.
Every day proves more and more the insufficiency
of the Confederation. The proselytes to this opinion
are increasing fast, and many of the most sensible
men acknowledge the wisdom of the measure recom-
mended by your Legislature at their last sitting.
Various circumstances conspire at this time to in-
cline to the adoption of it, and I am not without
hope it may ere long take place. But I am far from
being sanguine.
We are deliberating on some mode for carrying
that article of the Confederation into execution,
which respects the valuation of lands, to ascertain
the quotas of the several States. None has yet
been proposed that appears to me eligible. I confess
I dislike the principle altogether; but we are tied
down by the Confederation.
The affairs of the Grants have been no further
touched since the resolutions transmitted to you. It
is a business in which nobody cares to act with de-
cision. As intimated before, I must doubt the per-
severance of Congress, if military coercion should
become necessary. I am clear the only chance the
Legislature have for a recovery of any part of the
revolted territory is by a compromise with New
3io Alexander Hamilton
Hampshire, and this compromise must originate
between the States themselves. I hope the Legis-
lature will revise the late act for confirming the pos-
sessions of those who hold lands in that country. I
am certain there are doubts upon the subject, and it
were much to be wished such doubts did not exist.
The present dissatisfaction of the army is much op-
posed to any experiment of force in a service where
scruples of interest or prejudice may operate.1
TO WASHINGTON
Philadelphia, February 7, 1783.
Sir:
Flattering myself that your knowledge of me will
induce you to receive the observations I make, as
dictated by a regard to the public good, I take the
liberty to suggest to you my ideas on some mat-
ters of delicacy and importance. I view the present
juncture as a very interesting one. I need not ob-
serve how far the temper and situation of the army
make it so. The state of our finances was perhaps
never more critical. I am under injunctions which
will not permit me to disclose some facts that would
at once demonstrate this position; but I think it
probable you will be possessed of them through
another channel. It is, however, certain that there
has scarcely been a period of the Revolution which
called more for wisdom and decision in Congress.
Unfortunately for us, we are a body not governed
by reason or foresight, but by circumstances. It is
1 Now first printed from the Clinton papers at Albany.
Private Correspondence 311
probable we shall not take the proper measures;
and if we do not, a few months may open an em-
barrassing scene. This will be the case whether we
have peace or a continuance of the war.
If the war continues, it would seem that the army-
must, in June, subsist itself, to defend the country.
If peace should take place, it will subsist itself, to
procure justice to itself. It appears to be a prevailing
opinion in the army that the disposition to recom-
pense their services will cease with the necessity for
them, and that, if they once lay down their arms,
they part with the means of obtaining justice. It is
to be lamented that appearances afford too much
ground for their distrust.
It becomes a serious inquiry: What is the true
line of policy? The claims of the army, urged with
moderation, but with firmness, may operate on those
weak minds which are influenced by their apprehen-
sions more than by their judgments, so as to produce
a concurrence in the measures which the exigencies
of affairs demand. They may add weight to the
applications of Congress to the several States. So
far a useful turn may be given to them. But the
difficulty will be to keep a complaining and suffering
army within the bounds of moderation.
This your Excellency's influence must effect. In
order to do it, it will be advisable not to discounten-
ance their endeavors to procure redress, but rather,
by the intervention of confidential and prudent per-
sons, to take the direction of them. This, however,
must not appear. It is of moment to the public
tranquillity, that your Excellency should preserve
312 Alexander Hamilton
the confidence of the army without losing that of
the people. This will enable you, in case of ex-
tremity, to guide the current, and to bring order,
perhaps even good, out of confusion. 'T is a part
that requires address ; but 't is one which your own
situation, as well as the welfare of the community,
points out.
I will not conceal from your Excellency a truth
which it is necessary you should know. An idea is
propagated in the army that delicacy, carried to an
extreme, prevents your espousing its interests with
sufficient warmth. The falsehood of this opinion
no one can be better acquainted with than myself,
but it is not the less mischievous for being false. Its
tendency is to impair that influence which you may
exert with advantage, should any commotions un-
happily ensue, to moderate the pretensions of the
army, and make their conduct correspond with their
duty.
The great desideratum at present is the establish-
ment of general funds, which alone can do justice to
the creditors of the United States (of whom the army
forms the most meritorious class), restore public
credit, and supply the future wants of government.
This is the object of all men of sense. In this
the influence of the army, properly directed, may
co-operate.
The intimations I have thrown out will suffice to
give your Excellency a proper conception of my
sentiments. You will judge of their reasonableness
or fallacy, but I persuade myself you will do justice
to my motives. General Knox has the confidence of
Private Correspondence 313
the army, and is a man of sense. I think he may be
safely made use of. Situated as I am, your Ex-
cellency will feel the confidential nature of these
observations.
TO GOVERNOR CLINTON
February 24, 1783.
Sir:
In my letter of the 14th I informed your Excellency
that Congress were employed in devising a plan for
carrying the eighth article of the Confederation into
execution. This business is at length brought to a
conclusion. I enclose, for the information of the
Legislature, the proceedings upon it in different
stages, by which they will see the part I have acted.
But as I was ultimately left in a small minority, I
think it my duty to explain the motives upon which
my opposition to the general course of the House
was founded.
I am of opinion that the article of the Confedera-
tion itself was ill-judged. In the first place I do not
believe there is any general representative of the
wealth of a nation, the criterion of its ability to pay
taxes. There are only two that can be thought of —
land and numbers.
The revenues of the United Provinces (general
and particular) were computed, before the present
war, to more than half as much as those of Great
Britain. The extent of their territory is not one
fourth part as great, their population less than a
third. The comparison is still more striking be-
tween those provinces and the Swiss Cantons, in
3r4 Alexander Hamilton
both of which extent of territory and population are
nearly the same, and yet the revenues of the former
are five times as large as those of the latter; nor
could any efforts of taxation bring them to any
thing like a level. In both cases the advantages for
agriculture are superior in those countries which
afford least revenue in proportion. I have selected
these examples because they are most familiar, but
whoever will extend the comparison between the
different nations of the world will perceive that the
position I have laid down is supported by universal
experience.
The truth is, the ability of a country to pay taxes
depends on infinite combinations of physical and
moral causes which can never be accommodated to
any general rule — climate, soil, productions, advan-
tages for navigation, government, genius of the
people, progress of arts and industry, and an endless
variety of circumstances. The diversities are suf-
ficiently great in these States to make an infinite
difference in their relative wealth, the proportion of
which can never be found by any common measure
whatever.
The only possible way, then, of making them con-
tribute to the general expense in an equal proportion
to their means, is by general taxes imposed under
Continental authority.
In this mode there would no doubt be inequalities,
and, for a considerable time, material ones, but ex-
perience, and the constant operation of a general
interest, which, by the very collision of particular
interests, must, in the main, prevail in a Continental
Private Correspondence 3X5
deliberative, would at length correct those inequali-
ties, and balance one tax that should bear hard upon
one State by another that should have proportional
weight in others. This idea, however, was not, at
the period of framing the Confederation, and is not
yet, agreeable to the spirit of the time. To futurity
we must leave the discovery how far this spirit is
wise or foolish. One thing only is now certain:
that Congress having the discretionary power of
determining the quantum of money to be paid into
the general treasury towards defraying the common
expenses, have in effect the constitutional power of
general taxation.
The restraints upon the exercise of this power
amount to the perpetuating a rule for fixing the pro-
portions, which must of necessity produce inequality,
and by refusing the Federal Government a power
of specific taxation and of collection, without sub-
stituting any other adequate means of coercion, do,
in fact, leave the compliance with Constitutional
requisitions to the good- will of the respective States.
Inequality is inherent in the theory of the Confedera-
tion, and, in the practice, that inequality must in-
crease in proportion to the honesty or dishonesty of
the component parts. This vice will either, in its
consequences, reform the Federal Constitution or
dissolve it.
If a general standard must be fixed, numbers were
preferable to land. Modes might be devised to as-
certain the former with tolerable precision; but I
am persuaded the experiment will prove that the
value of all the land in each State cannot be
316 Alexander Hamilton
ascertained with any thing like exactness. Both
these measures have the common disadvantage of
being no equal representative of the wealth of the
people, but one is much more simple, definite, and
certain than the other.
I have indulged myself in these remarks to show
that I have little expectation of success from any
mode of carrying the article in question into execu-
tion upon equitable principles. I owe it, however,
to myself to declare that my opposition did not
arise from this source. The Confederation has
pointed out this mode, and, though I would heartily
join in a representation of the difficulties (of which
every man of sense must be sensible on examina-
tion) that occur in the execution of the plan to in-
duce the States to consent to a change, yet, as this
was not the disposition of a majority of Congress, I
would have assented to any mode of attempting
it, which was not either obviously mischievous or
impracticable.
The first plan proposed, as your Excellency will
see, was an actual valuation of each State by itself.
This was evidently making the interested party judge
in his own cause. Those who have seen the opera-
tion of this principle between the counties in the
same State, and the districts in the same county,
cannot doubt a moment that the valuations on this
plan would have been altogether unequal and un-
just. Without supposing more liberality in one
State than in another, the degree of care, judgment,
and method employed in the execution would alone
make extreme differences in the results.
Private Correspondence 317
This mode has also the further inconvenience of
awakening all the jealousies of the several States
against each other. Each would suspect that its
neighbor had favored itself, whether the partiality
appeared or not. It would be impossible to silence
these distrusts and to make the States sit down
satisfied with the justice of each other. Every
new requisition for money would be a new signal
for discussion and clamor, and the seeds of dis-
union, already sown too thick, would be not a little
multiplied.
To guard against these evils the plan proposes a
revision by Congress; but it is easy to be seen that
such a power could not be exercised. Should any
States return defective valuations it would be diffi-
cult to find sufficient evidence to determine them
such. To alter would not be admissible, for Con-
gress could have no data which could be presumed
equivalent to those which must have governed the
judgment of commissioners under oath, or an actual
view of the premises. To do either this or reject
would be an impeachment of the honor of the States,
which it is not probable there would be decision
enough to hazard, and which, if done, could not fail
to excite serious disgusts. There is a wide differ-
ence between a single State exercising such a power
over its own counties and a confederate government
exercising it over sovereign States which compose
the Confederacy. It might also happen that too
many States would be interested in the defective
valuations to leave a sufficient number willing either
to alter or to reject.
3*8 Alexander Hamilton
These considerations prevailed to prevent the
plan being adopted by the majority.
The last plan may be less mischievous than the
first, but it appears to me altogether ineffectual.
The mere quantity of lands granted and surveyed,
with the general species of buildings upon them, can
certainly be no criteria to determine their value.
The plan does not even distinguish the improved
from the unimproved land, the qualities of soil or
degrees of improvement ; the qualities of the houses
and other buildings are entirely omitted. These, it
seems, are to be judged by the commissioners to be
appointed by each State. But I am unable to con-
ceive how any commissioner can form the least
estimate of these circumstances with respect even
to his own State, much less with respect to other
States, which would be necessary to establish a just
relative value. If even there was a distinction of
improved from unimproved land, by supposing an
intrinsic value in the land and adopting general
rates, something nearer the truth might be attained ;
but it must now be all conjecture and uncertainty.
The numbers of inhabitants, distinguishing white
from black, are called for. This is not only totally
foreign to the Confederation, but can answer no
reasonable purpose. It has been said that the
proportion of numbers may guide and correct the
estimates. An assertion, purely verbal, has no mean-
ing. A judgment must first be formed of the value
of the lands upon some principles. If this should be
altered by the proportion of numbers, it is plain num-
bers would be substituted to land.
Private Correspondence 319
Another objection to this plan is that it lets in the
particular interests of the States to operate in the
returns of the quantities of land, number of build-
ings, and number of inhabitants. But the principle
of this objection applies less forcibly here than
against the former plan.
Whoever will consider the plain import of the
eighth article of the Confederation must be con-
vinced that it intended an actual and specific valua-
tion of land, buildings, and improvements, — not a
mere general estimate, according to the present plan.
While we insist, therefore, upon adhering to the Con-
federation, we should do it in reality, not barely in
appearance.
Many of those who voted for this scheme had as
bad an opinion of it as myself, but they were induced
to accede to it by a persuasion that some plan for
the purpose was expected by the States, and that
none better, in the present circumstances of the
country, could be fallen upon.
A leading rule which I have laid down for the di-
rection of my conduct is this, that, while I would
have a just deference for the expectations of the
States, I would never consent to amuse them by
attempts which must either fail in the execution or
be productive of evil. I would rather incur the
negative inconveniences of delay than the positive
mischiefs of injudicious expedients. A contrary
conduct serves to destroy confidence in the govern-
ment, the greatest misfortune that can befall a
nation. There should, in my opinion, be a character
of wisdom and efficiency in all the measures of the
320 Alexander Hamilton
Federal Council, the opposite of a spirit of tem-
porizing concession.
I would have sufficient reliance on the judg-
ments of the several States to hope that good
reasons for not attempting a thing would be more
satisfactory to them than precipitate and fruitless
attempts.
My idea is that, taking it for granted the States
will expect an experiment on the principle of the
Confederation, the best plan will be to make it by
commissioners, appointed by Congress, and acting
under their authority. Congress might, in the first
instance, appoint three or more of the principal
characters in each State for probity and abilities,
with a power to nominate other commissioners un-
der them in each subdivision of the State. General
principles might be laid down for the regulation of
their conduct, by which uniformity in the manner
of conducting the business would obtain. Sanctions
of such solemnity might be prescribed and such no-
toriety given to every part of the transaction, that
the commissioners could neither be careless nor par-
tial without a sacrifice of reputation.
To carry this plan, however, into effect, with
sufficient care and accuracy, would be a work both
of time and expense; and, unfortunately, we are so
pressed to find money for calls of immediate neces-
sity, that we could not at present undertake a
measure which would require so large a sum.
To me it appears evident that every part of a busi-
ness which is of so important and universal concern
should be transacted on uniform principles and
Private Correspondence 321
under the direction of that body which has a common
interest.
In general, I regard the present moment, probably
the dawn of peace, as peculiarly critical, and the
measures which it shall produce as of great impor-
tance to the future welfare of these States. I am
therefore scrupulously cautious of assenting to plans
which appear to me founded on false principles.
Your Excellency will observe that the valuation
of the lands is to be the standard for adjusting the
accounts for past supplies between the United States
and the particular States. This, if adhered to with-
out allowance for the circumstances of those States
which have been more immediately the theatre of
the war, will charge our State for the past according
to its future ability when in an entire condition, if the
valuation should be made after we regain possession
of the parts of the State now in the power of the
enemy.
I have therefore introduced a motion for repeating
the call, in a more earnest manner, upon the States
to vest Congress with a power of making equitable
abatements, agreeably to the spirit of the resolution
of the 20th of February last, which few of the States
have complied with. This motion has been com-i
mitted. I know not what will be its fate.
Notwithstanding the opposition I have given, now
the matter has been decided in Congress I hope the
State will cheerfully comply with what is required.
Unless each State is governed by this principle,
there is an end to the Union. Every State will, no
doubt, have a right in this case to accompany its
VOL. IX. — 21.
322 Alexander Hamilton
compliance with such remarks as it may think proper.
After the plan was agreed upon it was committed
to be put into form, and when reported, instead of
commissioners, an alteration was carried for making
the estimate by a grand committee.
February 27.
Mr. Morris has signified to Congress his resolution
to resign by the ist of June if adequate funds are
not by that time provided. This will be a severe
stroke to our affairs. No man fit for the office will
be willing to supply his place, for the very reason he
resigns.
T is happy for us we have reasons to expect
a peace. I am sorry that, by different accounts,
it appears not to have been concluded late in
December.
TO WASHINGTON
Philadelphia, March 5, 1783.
Sir:
I had the honor of writing your Excellency lately
on a very confidential subject, and shall be anxious
to know, as soon as convenient, whether the letter
got safe to hand.
The bearer, Shattuck, thinks he can point out
means of apprehending Wells and Knowlton,1 the
1 November 27, 1782, Congress directed Washington to apprehend
and secure Luke Knowlton of Newfane and Samuel Wells of Brattle-
borough, in the New Hampshire Grants, for being in a dangerous cor-
respondence and intercourse with the enemy. This affair probably
grew out of the trouble between New York and New Hampshire, and
the inhabitants of what is now Vermont. There was a party among
the people there which was said to aim at a union with the British
provinces.
Private Correspondence 323
two persons whom your Excellency was authorized
to have taken into custody. I have desired him to
call upon you to disclose the plan. I will not
trouble your Excellency with any observation on
the importance of getting hold of those persons.
The surmise that Mr. Arnold,1 a member of Con-
gress, gave intelligence to them of the design to take
them, makes it peculiarly important.
TO WASHINGTON
Philadelphia, March 17, 1783.
Sir:
I am duly honored with your Excellency's letters
of the 4th and 12th instant. It is much to be re-
gretted, though not to be wondered at, that steps
of so inflammatory a tendency have been taken in
the army. Your Excellency has, in my opinion,
acted wisely. The best way is ever not to attempt
to stem a torrent, but to divert it.
I am happy to find you coincident in opinion with
me on the conduct proper to be observed by your-
self. I am persuaded more and more it is that which
is most consistent with your own reputation and
the public safety.
Our affairs wear a most serious aspect, as well
foreign as domestic. Before this gets to hand your
Excellency will probably have seen the provisional
articles between Great Britain and these States. It
might at first appearance be concluded that these
1 Jonathan Arnold, delegate from Rhode Island, but a resident of
Vermont. He was not re-elected to Congress, but there is no means
of knowing whether Hamilton's suspicions were correct.
324 Alexander Hamilton
will be a prelude to a general peace, but there are
strong reasons to doubt the truth of such a conclu-
sion. Obstacles may arise from different quarters:
from the demands of Spain and Holland; from the
hope in France of greater acquisitions in the East;
and perhaps still more probably, from the insincerity
and duplicity of Lord Shelburne, whose politics,
founded in the peculiarity of his situation, as well
as in the character of the man, may well be sus-
pected of insidiousness. I am really apprehensive
if peace does not take place that the negotiations
will tend to sow distrust among the allies and weaken
the force of the common league. We have, I fear,
men among us, and men in trust, who have a han-
kering after British connection. We have others
whose confidence in France savors of credulity.
The intrigues of the former and the incautiousness
of the latter may be both, though in different de-
grees, injurious to the American interests, and make
it difficult for prudent men to steer a proper course.
There are delicate circumstances with respect to
the late foreign transactions, which I am not at
liberty to reveal, but which, joined to our internal
weaknesses, disorders, follies, and prejudices, make
this country stand upon precarious ground.
Some use, perhaps, may be made of these ideas to
induce moderation in the army. An opinion that
their country does not stand upon a secure footing
will operate upon the patriotism of the officers
against hazarding any domestic commotions.
When I make these observations I cannot forbear
adding that if no excesses take place I shall not be
Private Correspondence 325
sorry that ill-humors have appeared. I shall not
regret importunity, if temperate, from the army.
There are good intentions in the majority of Con-
gress, but there is not sufficient wisdom or decision.
There are dangerous prejudices in the particular
States opposed to those measures which alone can
give stability and prosperity to the Union. There
is a fatal opposition to Continental views. Neces-
sity alone can work a reform. But how produce
that necessity, how apply it, and how keep it within
salutary bounds? I fear we have been contending
for a shadow.
The affair of accounts I considered as having been
put on a satisfactory footing. The particular States
have been required to settle till the first of August,
'8o, and the Superintendent of Finance has been
directed to take measures for settling since that
period. I shall immediately see him on the subject.
We have had eight States and a half in favor of a
commutation of the half pay for an average of ten
years' purchase — that is, five years' full pay instead
of half pay for life, which, on a calculation of annui-
ties, is nearly an equivalent. I hope this will now
shortly take place.
We have made considerable progress in a plan to
be recommended to the several States for funding
all the public debts, including those of the army,
which is certainly the only way to restore public
credit and enable us to continue the war by borrow-
ing abroad, if it should be necessary to continue it.
I omitted mentioning to your Excellency that,
from European intelligence, there is great reason to
326 Alexander Hamilton
believe, at all events — peace or war, — New York will
be evacuated in the spring. It will be a pity if any
domestic disturbances should change the plans of
the British court.
P. S. — Your Excellency mentions that it has been
surmised the plan in agitation was formed in Phila-
delphia, that combinations have been talked of be-
tween the public creditors and the army, and that
members of Congress had encouraged the idea. This
is partly true. I have myself urged in Congress the
propriety of uniting the influence of the public
creditors, and the army as part of them, to prevail
upon the States to enter into their views. I have
expressed the same sentiments out-of-doors. Sev-
eral other members of Congress have done the same.
The meaning, however, of all this was simply that
Congress should adopt such a plan as would em-
brace the relief of all the public creditors, including
the army, in order that the personal influence of
some, the connections of others, and a sense of jus-
tice to the army, as well as the apprehension of ill
consequences, might form a mass of influence in each
State in favor of the measures of Congress. In this
view, as I mentioned to your Excellency in a former
letter, I thought the discontents of the army might
be turned to a good account. I am still of opinion
that their earnest but respectful applications for re-
dress will have a good effect. As to any combination
of force, it would only be productive of the horrors
of a civil war, might end in the ruin of the country,
and would certainly end in the ruin of the army.
Private Correspondence 327
TO WASHINGTON
Philadelphia, March 24, 1783.
Sir:
Your Excellency will, before this reaches you,
have received a letter from the Marquis de Lafay-
ette, informing you that the preliminaries of peace
between all the belligerent powers have been con-
cluded. I congratulate your Excellency on this
happy conclusion of your labors. It now only re-
mains to make solid establishments within, to per-
petuate our Union, to prevent our being a ball in
the hands of European powers, bandied against each
other at their pleasure; in fine to make our inde-
pendence truly a blessing. This, it is to be la-
mented, will be an arduous work; for, to borrow a
figure from mechanics, the centrifugal is much
stronger than the centripetal force in these States, —
the seeds of disunion much more numerous than
those of union.
I will add that your Excellency's exertions are as
essential to accomplish this end as they have been
to establish independence. I will upon a future
occasion open myself upon this subject.
Your conduct in the affair of the officers is highly
pleasing here. The measures of the army are such
as I could have wished them, and will add new
lustre to their character as well as strengthen the
hands of Congress.
328 Alexander Hamilton
TO WASHINGTON
Philadelphia, March 25, 1783.
Sir:
I wrote your Excellency a day or two ago by ex-
press. Since that, a committee, appointed on the
communications from you, have had a meeting, and
find themselves embarrassed. They have requested
me to communicate our embarrassments to you in
confidence, and to ask your private opinion. The
army, by their resolutions, express an expectation
that Congress will not disband them previous to a
settlement of accounts and the establishment of
funds. Congress may resolve upon the first, but the
general opinion is that they cannot constitutionally
declare the second. They have no right, by the
Confederation, to demand funds — they can only
recommend — and to determine that the army shall
be continued in service till the States grant them,
would be to determine that the whole present army
shall be a standing army during peace, unless the
States comply with the requisition for funds. This,
it is supposed, would excite the alarm and jealousies
of the States, and increase, rather than lessen, the
opposition to the funding scheme. It is also ob-
served the longer the army is kept together the more
the payment of past dues is procrastinated, the
abilities of the States being exhausted for their imme-
diate support, and a new debt every day incurred.
It is further suggested that there is danger in keep-
ing the army together in a state of inactivity, and
that a separation of the several lines would facilitate
the settlement of accounts, diminish present ex-
Private Correspondence 329
pense, and avoid the danger of union. It is added
that the officers of each line, being on the spot,
might, by their own solicitations and those of their
friends, forward the adoption of funds in the different
States.
A proposition will be transmitted to you by Colo-
nel Bland, in the form of a resolution to be adopted
by Congress, framed upon the principles of the fore-
going reasoning.
Another proposition is contained in the following
resolution :
"That the Commander-in-Chief be informed it is
the intention of Congress to effect the settlement of
the accounts of the respective lines previous to their
reduction, and that Congress are doing, and will
continue to do, every thing in their power towards
procuring satisfactory securities for what shall be
found due on such settlement."
The scope of this your Excellency will perceive
without comment.
I am to request you will favor me with your senti-
ments on both the propositions, and in general with
your ideas of what had best be done with reference
to the expectation expressed by the officers; taking
into view the situation of Congress. On one side the
army expect they will not be disbanded till accounts
are settled and funds established. On the other
hand, they have no constitutional power of doing
any thing more than to recommend funds, and are
persuaded that these will meet with mountains of
prejudice in some of the States.
A considerable progress has been made in a plan
33° Alexander Hamilton
for funding the public debts, and it is to be hoped it
will erelong go forth to the States, with every argu-
ment that can give it success.
TO WASHINGTON
Philadelphia, March 25, 1783.
Sir:
The inclosed * I write more in a public than in a
private capacity. Here I write as a citizen zealous
for the true happiness of this country; as a soldier
who feels what is due to an army which has suffered
every thing and done much for the safety of America.
I sincerely wish ingratitude was not so natural to
the human heart as it is. I sincerely wish there were
no seeds of it in those who direct the councils of the
United States. But while I urge the army to mod-
eration, and advise your Excellency to take the
direction of their discontents, and endeavor to con-
fine them within the bounds of duty, I cannot, as an
honest man, conceal from you that I am afraid their
distrusts have too much foundation. Republican
jealousy has in it a principle of hostility to an army,
whatever be their merits, whatever be their claims
to the gratitude of the community. It acknow-
ledges their services with unwillingness, and rewards
them with reluctance. I see this temper, though
smothered with great care, involuntarily breaking
out upon too many occasions. I often feel a mor-
tification, which it would be impolitic to express,
1 The "inclosed" is the preceding letter.
Private Correspondence 331
that sets my passions at variance with my reason.
Too many, I perceive, if they could do it with safety
or color, would be glad to elude the just preten-
sions of the army. I hope this is not the prevailing
disposition.
But supposing the country ungrateful, what can
the army do? It must submit to its hard fate. To
seek redress by its arms would end in its ruin. The
army would moulder by its own weight, and for
want of the means of keeping together the soldiers
would abandon their officers; there would be no
chance of success without having recourse to means
that would reverse our revolution. I make these
observations, not that I imagine your Excellency
can want motives to continue your influence in the
path of moderation, but merely to show why I can-
not myself enter into the views of coercion which
some gentlemen entertain, for I confess, could force
avail, I should almost wish to see it employed. I
have an indifferent opinion of the honesty of this
country, and ill forebodings as to its future system.
Your Excellency will perceive I have written with
sensations of chagrin, and will make allowance for
coloring, but the general picture is too true. God
send us all more wisdom.
TO WASHINGTON
April, 1783.
Sir:
I have received your Excellency's letters of the
thirty-first of March and fourth of April, the last to-
day. The one to Colonel Bland, as member of the
33 2 Alexander Hamilton
committee, has been read in committee confidentially,
and gave great satisfaction. The idea of not at-
tempting to separate the army before the settlement
of accounts, corresponds with my proposition. That
of endeavoring to let them have some pay, had also
appeared to me indispensable. The expectations
of the army, as represented by your Excellency, are
moderation itself. To-morrow we confer with the
Superintendent of Finance on the subject of money.
There will be difficulty, but not, we hope, insur-
mountable.
I thank your Excellency for the hints you are so
obliging as to give me in your private letter. I do
not wonder at the suspicions that have been in-
fused ; nor should I be surprised to hear that I have
been pointed out as one of the persons concerned in
playing the game described. But facts must speak
for themselves. The gentlemen who were here from
the army, and General McDougal who is still here,
will be able to give a true account of those who have
supported the just claims of the army, and of those
who have endeavored to elude them.
There are two classes of men, sir, in Congress, of
very different views: one attached to State, the
other to Continental, politics. The latter have been
strenuous advocates for funding the public debt
upon solid securities; the former have given every
opposition in their power, and have only been
dragged into the measures which are now near
being adopted, by the clamors of the army and other
public creditors.
The advocates for Continental funds have blended
Private Correspondence 333
the interests of the army with other creditors, from
a conviction that no funds for partial purposes will
go through those States to whose citizens the United
States are largely indebted; or, if they should be
carried through, from impressions of the moment,
would have the necessary stability, for the influence
of those unprovided for would always militate
against a provision for others in exclusion of them.
It is in vain to tell men who have parted with a large
part of their property on the public faith, that the
services of the army are entitled to a preference;
they would reason from their interest and their feel-
ings; these would tell them that they had as great
a title as any other class of the community to public
justice, and that while this was denied to them it
would be unreasonable to make them bear their part
of a burthen for the benefit of others. This is the
way they would reason; and as their influence in
some of the States was considerable, they would have
been able to prevent any partial provision.
But the question was not merely how to do justice
to the creditors, but how to restore public credit.
Taxation in this country, it was found, would not
supply a sixth part of the public necessities. The
loans in Europe were far short of the balance, and
the prospect every day diminishing: the Court of
France telling us in plain terms she could not even
do as much as she had done ; individuals in Holland,
and everywhere else, refusing to part with their
money on the precarious tenure of the mere faith of
this country, without any pledge for the payment
either of principal or interest.
334 Alexander Hamilton
In this situation what was to be done? It was
essential to our cause that vigorous efforts should be
made to restore public credit; it was necessary to
combine all the motives to this end that could oper-
ate upon different descriptions of persons in the
different States; the necessities and discontents of
the army presented themselves as a powerful engine.
But, sir, these gentlemen would be puzzled to
support their insinuations by a single fact. It was,
indeed, proposed to appropriate the intended im-
post on trade to the army debt; and, what was ex-
traordinary, by gentlemen who had expressed their
dislike to the principle of the fund. I acknowledge
I was one that opposed this, for the reasons already
assigned and for these additional ones. That was
the fund on which we most counted; to obtain fur-
ther loans in Europe, it was necessary we should
have a fund sufficient to pay the interest of what
had been borrowed and what was to be borrowed.
The truth was, these people, in this instance, wanted
to play off the army against the funding system.
As to Mr. Morris, I will give your Excellency a
true explanation of his conduct. He had been for
some time pressing Congress to endeavor to obtain
funds, and had found a great backwardness in the
business. He found the taxes unproductive in the
different States ; he found the loans in Europe mak-
ing a very slow progress; he found himself pressed
on all hands for supplies ; he found himself, in short,
reduced to this alternative: either of making en-
gagements which he could not fulfil, or declaring his
resignation in case funds were not established by a
Private Correspondence 335
given time. Had he followed the first course, the
bubble must soon have burst; he must have sacri-
ficed his credit and his character, and public credit,
already in a ruinous condition, would have lost its
last support.
He wisely judged it better to resign. This might
increase the embarrassments of the moment; but
the necessity of the case, it was to be hoped, would
produce the proper measures; and he might then
resume the direction of the machine with advantage
and success.
He also had some hope that his resignation would
prove a stimulus to Congress.
He was, however, ill advised in the publication of
his letters of resignation. This was an imprudent
step, and has given a handle to his personal enemies,
who, by playing upon the passions of others, have
drawn some well-meaning men into the cry against
him. But Mr. Morris certainly deserves a great deal
from his country. I believe no man in this country
but himself could have kept the money machine a-go-
ing during the period he has been in office. From
every thing that appears, his administration has
been upright as well as able.
The truth is, the old leaven of Deane and Lee is,
at this day, working against Mr. Morris. He hap-
pened, in that dispute, to have been on the side of
Deane ; and certain men can never forgive him. A
man whom I once esteemed, and whom I will rather
suppose duped than wicked, is the second actor in
this business.
The matter with respect to the army which has
33& Alexander Hamilton
occasioned most altercation in Congress and most
dissatisfaction in the army, has been the half-pay.
The opinions on this head have been two : one party
was for referring the several lines to their States, to
make such commutation as they should think proper ;
the other, for making the commutation by Congress,
and funding it on Continental security. I was of
this last opinion, and so were all those who will be
represented as having made use of the army as pup-
pets. Our principal reasons were: Firstly , by re-
ferring the lines to their respective States, those
which were opposed to the half-pay would have
taken advantage of the officers' necessities to make
the commutation far short of an equivalent. Sec-
ondly, the inequality which would have arisen in the
different States when the officers came to compare
(as has happened in other cases), would have been a
new source of discontent. Thirdly, such a reference
was a continuance of the old wretched State system,
by which the ties between Congress and the army
have been nearly dissolved, by which the resources
of the States have been diverted from the common
treasury and wasted — a system which your Excel-
lency has often justly reprobated.
I have gone into these details to give you a just
idea of the parties in Congress. I assure you, upon
my honor, sir, I have given you a candid state of
facts, to the best of my judgment. The men against
whom the suspicions you mention must be directed,
are in general the most sensible, the most liberal,
the most independent, and the most respectable
characters in our body, as well as the most un-
Private Correspondence 337
equivocal friends to the army. In a word, they are
the men who think continentally.
I am chairman of a committee for peace arrange-
ments. We shall ask your Excellency's opinion at
large on a proper military peace establishment. I
will just hint to your Excellency, that our preju-
dices will make us wish to keep up as few troops as
possible.
We this moment learn an officer is arrived from
Sir Guy Carleton with dispatches, probably official
accounts of peace.
TO WASHINGTON
Philadelphia, April 9, 1783.
Sir:
Congress having appointed a committee consist-
ing of Messrs. Madison, Osgood, Wilson, Ellsworth,
and myself, to consider what arrangements it will be
proper to adopt in the different departments with
reference to a peace, I am directed by the committee
to address your Excellency on the subject of the
military department.
The committee wish your Excellency's sentiments
at large on such institutions of every kind for the in-
terior defence of these States as may be best adapted
to their circumstances, and conciliate security with
economy and with the principles of our govern-
ment. In this they will be glad if you will take as
great latitude as you may think necessary, and will
therefore omit entering into any details.
The committee apprehend it to be the intention
VOL. IX. — 22.
33% Alexander Hamilton
of Congress to lay down a general plan, to be carried
into execution as circumstances will permit, and
that in attending to such dispositions as the imme-
diate situation of the country may require, they are
chiefly desirous of establishing good principles that
will have a permanent salutary operation.1
TO WASHINGTON
Philadelphia, April 15, 1783.
Sir:
There are two resolutions passed relative to the
restoration of the British prisoners, and to making
arrangements for the surrender of the posts in the
possession of the British troops; the first of which
is to be transacted by you in conjunction with the
Secretary of War, the latter by yourself alone. I
will explain to you some doubts which have arisen
in Congress with regard to the true construction of
the provisional treaty, which may be of use to you
in transacting the business above mentioned.
The sixth article declares that there shall be no
future confiscations, etc., after the ratification of the
treaty in America, and the seventh article makes the
surrender of prisoners, evacuation of posts, cessa-
tion of hostilities, etc., to depend on that event, to
wit, the ratification of the treaty in America.
Now the doubt is, whether the treaty means the
provisional treaty already concluded, or the definitive
treaty to be concluded. The last construction is
most agreeable to the letter of the provisional ar-
ticles, the former most agreeable to the usual prac-
1 Now first printed from the Knox papers.
Private Correspondence 339
tice of nations, for hostilities commonly cease on the
ratification of the preliminary treaty.
There is a great diversity of opinion in Congress.
It will be, in my opinion, advisable, at the same time
that we do not communicate our doubts to the British,
to extract their sense of the matter from them.
This may be done by asking them at what periods
they are willing to stipulate the surrender of posts,
at the same time that they are asked in what manner
it will be the most convenient to them to receive the
prisoners.
If they postpone the evacuation of the different
posts to the definitive treaty, we shall then be justi-
fied in doing the same with respect to prisoners.
The question will then arise, whether, on principles
of humanity, economy, and liberality, we ought not
to restore the prisoners, at all events, without delay?
Much may be said on both sides. I doubt the expe-
dience of a total restoration of prisoners till they are
willing to fix the epochs at which they will take leave
of us. It will add considerably to their strength,
and accidents, though improbable, may happen.
I confess, however, I am not clear in my opinion.
The provisional or preliminary treaty is ratified by
us — for the greater caution.
TO GOVERNOR CLINTON
Philadelphia, May 14, 1783.
Sir:
The President of Congress will of course have
transmitted to your Excellency the plan lately
adopted by Congress for funding the public debt.
34° Alexander Hamilton
This plan was framed to accommodate it to the ob-
jections of some of the States, but this spirit of
accommodation will only serve to render it less
efficient without making it more palatable. The
opposition of the State of Rhode Island, for in-
stance, is chiefly founded upon these two considera-
tions: the merchants are opposed to any revenue
from trade ; and the State, depending almost wholly
on commerce, wants to have credit for the amount
of the duties.
Persuaded that the plan now proposed will have
little more chance of success than a better one, and
that, if agreed to by all the States, it will in a great
measure fail in the execution, it received my nega-
tive. My principal objections were:
First, that it does not designate the funds (except
the impost) on which the whole interest is to arise,
and by which (selecting the capital articles of visible
property) the collection would have been easy, the
funds productive, and necessarily increasing with
the increase of the country.
Second, that the duration of the funds is not co-
extensive with the debt, but limited to twenty-five
years, though there is a moral certainty that in that
period the principal will not by the present provision
be fairly extinguished.
Third, that the nomination and appointment of
the collectors of the revenue are to reside in the
State, instead of at least the nomination being in the
United States; the consequence of which will be
that those States which have little interest in the
funds, by having a small share of the public debt
Private Correspondence 341
due to their own citizens, will take care to appoint
such persons as are least likely to collect the revenue.
The evils resulting from these defects will be that
in many instances the objects of the revenues will
be improperly chosen, and will consist of a multitude
of little articles, which will, on experiment, prove in-
sufficient; that for want of a vigorous collection in
each State the revenue will be unproductive in many,
and will fall chiefly upon those States which are
governed by most liberal principles; that for want
of an adequate security the evidences of the public
debt will not be transferable for any thing like their
value; that this not admitting an incorporation of
the creditors in the nature of banks, will deprive the
public of the benefit of an increased circulation, and
of course will disable the people from paying the
taxes for want of a sufficient medium.
I shall be happy to be mistaken in my apprehen-
sions, but the experiment must determine.
I hope our State will consent to the plan pro-
posed, because it is in her interests at all events to
promote the payment of the public debt on Conti-
nental funds (independent of the general considera-
tions of union and propriety).
I am much mistaken if the debts due from the
United States to the citizens of the State of New
York do not considerably exceed its proportion of
the necessary funds; of course, it has an immediate
interest that there should be a Continental provision
for them. But there are superior motives that
ought to operate in every State — the obligations of
national faith, honor, and reputation.
342 Alexander Hamilton
Individuals have been already too long sacrificed
to public convenience. It will be shocking, and,
indeed, an eternal reproach to this country, if we
begin the peaceable enjoyment of our independence
by a violation of all the principles of honesty and
true policy.
It is worthy of remark that at least four fifths of
the domestic debt are due to the citizens of the
States, from Pennsylvania, inclusively, northward.
P. S. — It is particularly interesting that the State
should have a representation here. Not only mat-
ters are depending which require a full representation
in Congress, and there is now a thin one, but those
matters are of a nature so particularly interesting
to our State, that we ought not to be without a
voice in them. I wish two other gentlemen of the
delegation may appear as soon as possible, for it
would be very injurious for me to remain much
longer here. Having no future views in public life,
I owe it to myself without delay to enter upon the
care of my private concerns in earnest.
TO GOVERNOR CLINTON
Philadelphia, June i, 1783.
Sir:
In my last letter to your Excellency I took occa-
sion to mention that it was of great importance to
the State at this time to have a representation here,
as points in which, by its present situation, it is
particularly interested are daily and will be daily
agitated.
It is also of importance at this moment to the
Private Correspondence 343
United States (not only from general consideration,
but) because we have a very thin representation in
Congress, and are frequently unable to transact any
of those matters which require nine States. I wish
your Excellency would urge a couple of gentlemen
to come on, as it becomes highly inconvenient to me
to remain here, and as I have stayed the full time to
be expected.
I observe with great regret the intemperate pro-
ceedings among the people in different parts of the
State, in violation of a treaty, the faithful observ-
ance of which so deeply interests the United States.
Surely the State of New York, with its capital and
its frontier posts (on which its important fur trade
depends), in the hands of the British troops, ought
to take care that nothing is done to furnish a pretext
on the other side, even for delaying, much less for
refusing, the execution of the treaty. We may
imagine that the situation of Great Britain puts her
under a necessity, at all events, of fulfilling her en-
gagements and cultivating the good-will of this
country.
This is, no doubt, her true policy: but when we
feel that passion makes us depart from the dictates
of reason ; when we have seen that passion has had so
much influence in the conduct of the British councils
in the whole course of the war; when we recollect
that those who govern them are men like ourselves,
and alike subject to passions and resentments ; when
we reflect also that all the great men in England
are not united in the liberal scheme of policy with
respect to this country, and that in the anarchy
344 Alexander Hamilton
which prevails there is no knowing to whom the
reins of government may be committed; when we
recollect how little in a condition we are to force a
compliance with our claims we ought certainly to be
cautious in what manner we act, especially when we
in particular have so much at stake, and should not
openly provoke a breach of faith on the other side
by setting the example.
An important distinction is not sufficiently at-
tended to. The fifth article is recommendatory;
the sixth, positive. There is no option on the part
of the particular States as to any future confisca-
tions, prosecutions, or injuries of any kind, to per-
son, liberty, or property, on account of any thing
done in the war. It is matter of discretion in the
States whether they will comply with the recom-
mendations contained in the fifth article; but no
part of the sixth can be departed from by them
without a direct breach of public faith and of the
Confederation. The power of making treaties is ex-
clusively lodged in Congress. That power includes
whatever is essential to the termination of the war
and to the preservation of the general safety. In-
demnity to individuals in similar cases is a usual
stipulation in treaties of peace, of which many prece-
dents are to be produced.
Should it be said that the associations of the
people, without legal authority, do not amount to
a breach of the public faith, the answer is, if the
government does not repress them, and prevent
them having effect, it is as much a breach as a formal
refusal to comply on its part. In the eye of a
Private Correspondence 345
foreign nation, if our engagements are broken, it is
of no moment whether it is for the want of good in-
tention in the government, or for want of power to
restrain its subjects.
Suppose a violence committed by an American
vessel on the vessel of another nation on the high
seas, and after complaint made there is no redress
given. Is not this a hostility against the injured
nation which will justify reprisals?
But if I am not misinformed, there are violations
going on in form of law. I am told that indictments
continue to be brought under the former confiscation
laws. A palpable infraction, if true, of the sixth
article of the treaty, to which an immediate stop
ought no doubt to be put.
It has been said by some men that the operation
of this treaty is suspended till the definitive treaty;
a plain subterfuge. Whatever is clearly expressed
in the provisional or preliminary treaty is as binding
from the moment it is made as the definitive treaty,
which, in fact, only develops, explains, and fixes
more precisely what may have been too generally
expressed in the former.
Suppose the British should now send away not
only the negroes, but all other property, and all the
public records in their possession belonging to us,
on the pretence above stated; should we not justly
accuse them with breaking faith? Is this not al-
ready done in the case of the negroes who have been
carried away, though founded upon a very different
principle — a doubtful construction of the treaty,
not a denial of its immediate operation.
34-6 Alexander Hamilton
In fine, is it our interest to advance this doctrine
and to countenance the position that nothing is
binding till the definitive treaty, when there are ex-
amples of years intervening between the preliminary
and definitive treaties?
Sir Guy Carleton, in his correspondence, has ap-
peared to consider the treaty as immediately obli-
gatory, and it has been the policy which I have
pursued to promote the same idea.
I am not, indeed, apprehensive of the renewal of
the war, for peace is necessary to Great Britain. I
think it also most probable her disposition to con-
ciliate this country will outweigh the resentments
which a breach of our engagements is calculated to
inspire. But with a treaty which has exceeded the
hopes of the most sanguine; which, in the articles
of boundary and the fisheries, is even better than we
asked; circumstanced, too, as this country is with
respect to the means of making war, I think it the
height of imprudence to run any risk. Great Brit-
ain, without recommencing hostilities, may evade
parts of the treaty. She may keep possession of the
frontier posts ; she may obstruct the free enjoyment
of the fisheries; she may be indisposed to such ex-
tensive concessions in matters of commerce as it is
our interest to aim at. In all this she would find no
opposition from any foreign power, and we are not
in a condition to oblige her to any thing. If we
imagine that France, obviously embarrassed herself
in her finances, would renew the war to oblige Great
Britain to the restoration of frontier posts, or to a
compliance with the stipulations respecting the
Private Correspondence 347
fisheries (especially after a manifest breach of the
treaty on our part), we speculate much at random.
Observations might be made on the last article
which would prove that it is not the policy of France
to support our interest there. Are we prepared, for
the mere gratification of our resentments, to put
those great national objects to the hazard: to leave
our Western frontier in a state of insecurity; to
relinquish the fur-trade ; and to abridge our preten-
sions to the fisheries? Do we think national char-
acter so light a thing as to be willing to sacrifice the
public faith to individual animosity?
Let the case be fairly stated: Great Britain and
America, two independent nations, at war. The
former in possession of considerable posts and dis-
tricts of territory belonging to the latter, and also
of the means of obstructing certain commercial ad-
vantages in which it is deeply interested.
But it is not uncommon in treaties of peace for
the uti possidetis to take place. Great Britain, how-
ever, in the present instance, stipulates to restore
all our posts and territories in her possession. She
even adds an extent not within our original claims,
more than a compensation for a small part ceded in
another quarter. She agrees to readmit us to a par-
ticipation in the fisheries. What equivalent do we
give for this? Congress are to recommend the re-
storation of property to those who have adhered to
her, and expressly engage that no future injury shall
be done them in person, liberty, or property. This
is the sole condition, on our part, where there is not
an immediate reciprocity (the recovery of debts and
34$ Alexander Hamilton
liberation of prisoners being mutual, the former, in-
deed, only declaring what the rights of private faith,
which all civilized nations hold sacred, would have
declared without it), and stands as the single equiva-
lent for all the restitutions and concessions to be
made by Great Britain. Will it be honest in us to
violate this condition, or will it be prudent to put
it in competition with all the important matters to
be performed on the other side?
Will foreign nations be willing to undertake any
thing with us, or for us, when they find that the
nature of our governments will allow no dependence
to be placed upon our engagements ? I have omitted
saying any thing of the impolicy of inducing by our
severity a great number of useful citizens, whose
situations do not make them a proper object of
resentment, to abandon the country to form settle-
ments that will hereafter become our rivals, ani-
mated with a hatred to us which will descend to
their posterity. Nothing, however, can be more un-
wise than to contribute, as we are doing, to people
the shores and wilderness of Nova Scotia, a colony
which, by its position, will become a competitor with
us, among other things, in that branch of commerce
on which our navigation and navy will essentially
depend; — I mean the fisheries, in which I have no
doubt the State of New York will hereafter have a
considerable share.
To your Excellency I freely deliver my sentiments,
because I am persuaded you cannot be a stranger to
the force of these considerations. I fear not even to
hazard them to the justice and good sense of those
Private Correspondence 349
whom I have the honor to represent. I esteem it my
duty to do it, because the question is important to
the interests of the State in its relation to the United
States.
Those who consult only their passions might
choose to construe what I say as too favorable to a
set of men who have been the enemies of the public
liberty, but those for whose esteem I am most con-
cerned will acquit me of any personal consideration,
and will perceive that I only urge the cause of na-
tional honor, safety, and advantage. We have as-
sumed an independent station ; we ought to feel and
to act in a manner consistent with the dignity of
that station.
I anxiously wish to see every prudent measure
taken to prevent those combinations which will cer-
tainly disgrace us, if they do not involve us in other
calamities. Whatever distinctions are judged neces-
sary to be made in the cases of those persons who have
been in opposition to the common cause, let them be
made by legal authority, on a fair construction of the
treaty, consistent with national faith and national
honor.
1 P. S. — Your Excellency will have been informed
that Congress have instructed General Washington
to garrison the frontier posts, when surrendered,
with the three years' Continental troops. This is
more for the interest of the State than to have them
garrisoned at its particular expense, and I should
wish that permanent provision might be made on
the same principle. I wait to see whether any
1 Thus divided in original in State Department.
35° Alexander Hamilton
Continental peace establishment for garrisons, etc.,
will take place, before I engage the consent of Con-
gress to a separate provision.
I cannot forbear adding a word on the subject of
money. The only reliance we now have for redeem-
ing a large anticipation on the public credit, already
made and making for the benefit of the army, is on
the taxes coming in. The collection hitherto is out
of all proportion to the demand. It is of vast con-
sequence at this juncture that every thing possible
should be done to forward it. I forbear entering
into details which would be very striking upon this
subject. I will only say that unless there is a seri-
ous exertion in the States, public credit must ere-
long receive another shock very disagreeable in its
consequences.
TO JOHN DICKINSON ■
1783-
Sir:
Having always entertained an esteem for you per-
sonally, I could not, without reluctance, yield to im-
pressions that might weaken that sentiment, and it
is with pain I find myself drawn by circumstances
to animadvert upon the late message from the
Executive Council to the Assembly of Pennsylvania
relative to the mutiny, in a manner which may seem
1 In the edition of 1850 this letter is headed "To Reed, "presumably
intending Joseph Reed, who was President of Pennsylvania in 1781.
The original in the State Department has no address. The mutiny to
which this refers was in 1783, the letter is dated 1783, and John Dick-
inson was President from 1782 to 1786. It seems obvious that this
letter was written to the supreme magistrate of Pennsylvania, and if
so it must have been to Dickinson.
Private Correspondence 351
to impeach the candor of those who were the authors
of it.
But it will be impossible for persons who have read
the report of the committee and the message of the
Council, however inclined to make allowances for
the force of involuntary bias, not to conclude that
on one side or the other the facts have been wilfully
discolored. I decline any attempt to set the public
opinion right upon this subject, because, after all
that can be said, the judgments of men will eventu-
ally be determined by personal and party preposses-
sions. So far as I am concerned, I persuade myself
that those who are acquainted with me will place
entire confidence in my fairness and veracity. I
doubt not your Excellency's friends will be equally
partial to you, and those of the Council to them.
But though I should despair of rectifying or fixing
the public opinion by an appeal to the public, and
though I have seen too much of the ridicule thrown
upon such appeals from men in official stations, and
of the ill effect they have had upon the national
character, not to be willing to sacrifice the desire of
justifying myself to considerations of prudence and
propriety, yet I cannot forbear indulging my feelings
so far as to enter into a few explanations with your
Excellency, submitting the justness of them to the
testimony of your own mind.
As this is a mere private discussion, I address my-
self to your Excellency in particular; and the rather,
as, from the style and manner of the message, I take
it for granted you had the principal agency in it, and
I shall consider, on the same grounds, the notes in
35 2 Alexander Hamilton
' paper of the *, as a comment on the report
of the committee by yourself, in aid of the message.
I take up the matter individually, because I mean
to treat it on a private footing, and because, though
I do not acknowledge any peculiar responsibility, it
happened to be my lot, as chairman, principally to
conduct the conferences on the part of the committee.
I regard the whole of this business as a most un-
fortunate one, in which, probably, none of the actors
will acquire great credit. I deplore it as tending to
interrupt the harmony between Congress and a re-
spectable, a meritorious member of the Union. Who
were right or who were wrong is a question of less
importance than how mutual irritations may be
best healed. Whatever revives or continues the
former, is to be regretted. I lament to be under an
inducement to discuss circumstances that relate to
it in the remotest degree. Nothing but an attack
upon the ingenuousness of my conduct could have
called me to it. Its prudence, either collectively or
individually, would patiently have been consigned
to the lash of censure and criticism, merited or
unmerited.
Happily in the present case, the members of the
committee have a strong ground, from which they
cannot easily be forced. Apprehensive of miscon-
ception, I will not say of misrepresentation, they
tried to render it impossible by written communi-
cations. The presumption, with impartial minds,
cannot fail to be in favor of that side which gave
so decisive a proof of its disposition to fairness
1 These blanks are in the manuscript.
Private Correspondence 353
as to endeavor to put it out of its own power to
misrepresent.
The professed scruples of the Council cannot be
admitted to have any weight. Usage and the
plainest rules of propriety will dictate that it never
could have wounded the dignity or delicacy of the
executive of any State to have given to a committee
of Congress, appointed to confer on a subject of
moment, a written answer to a request in writing
after previous explanations. The fact stated speaks
for itself. The consequences show that the precau-
tion of the committee was well judged, and that
it would have been well for the Council to have
concurred.
In the present case it might be observed that
there was, in the first instance, a written application
from Congress to the Council, in the customary form
of resolutions; and though a committee was au-
thorized to confer and explain, a formal and authen-
tic answer might reasonably have been expected by
Congress, and, when desired by the committee, should
have been understood as desired on their behalf.
There is an awkwardness in reasoning upon self-
evident positions; but as the Council have, by their
conduct in the first instance and by their message
since, put forward a doubt upon the subject, and
made it a point of importance, I shall be excused for
examining it a little further. On what could the
objection of the Council be founded? They say it
had been unusual. Admitting the fact, was the mere
novelty of the thing a sufficient reason against it?
If there was no apparent inconvenience in making
VOL. IX. — 2$.
354 Alexander Hamilton
a new precedent ; if, on the contrary, there was a
manifest convenience in it, ought not such a punctilio
to have given way to considerations of utility ?
Was it derogatory to the dignity of the Council?
Surely, if they communicate in writing with the
executive servants of Congress, even those in sub-
ordinate stations, as is the practice of every day, and
as is indispensable to the prosecution of public busi-
ness, they might, at less expense of dignity, pursue
the same mode with a part of that body itself.
The distinction taken by the Council in their
message to the Assembly, respecting the responsi-
bility of such executive officers, as not applicable to
a committee, if it amounts to any thing, proves only
this: That such officers ought in prudence to take
greater precautions for their own justification than
a committee of Congress need to do. It is not to be
inferred, if a committee of Congress acting minis-
terially think it expedient to use circumspection,
that those with whom they are transacting business
can with propriety refuse to join them in that mode
which is best adapted to precision and certainty.
But indeed the ground of distinction is erroneous.
A committee of Congress act in a ministerial capa-
city, and are therefore responsible to the body to
which they belong, as well as the servants of that
body, though in a different manner. If it be said
that they do not act ministerially, but stand in the
place of Congress, then the Council, upon their own
principles, ought to have complied with their request.
To diminish the exceptionableness of their refusal,
it is true, as stated by the Council, that though they
Private Correspondence 355
said they could not condescend to do what the com-
mittee had asked, yet they declared themselves
willing to grant an answer in writing if Congress
should request it, and that they proposed that the
committee should put their verbal answer in writing,
to be afterward perused and examined by them.
The answer of the committee, as I doubt not
your Excellency will recollect, was, as to the first
point, that Congress in all probability would not
make the request, having determined (as the Council
had been already informed) not to resume their de-
liberations in this city until effective measures had
been taken to suppress the mutiny, and should they
assemble, would naturally feel a delicacy in request-
ing what had been denied to their committee. And
as to the second point, that the Council having
judged it inexpedient to give a written answer, the
committee would content themselves with making
the most accurate report in their power, relying
upon the confidence of the body to which they be-
longed and upon the candor of the Council.
Your Excellency is too good a judge of human
nature, as well as the force of language, not to have
perceived at the time the effect which the refusal of
the Council had upon my mind. I own it struck
me as an uncandid reserve, or an unbecoming state-
liness, and in either supposition a disrespect to the
body of which the committee were members.
Though nothing enters less into my temper than
an inclination to fetter business by punctilio, after
the Council had discovered such overwhelming
nicety I should have thought it a degradation to
356 Alexander Hamilton
my official character to have consented to their
proposal.
The desire of self-justification is so natural that I
should not have been surprised to have seen the
transactions which are the subject of the Council's
message receive a coloring favorable to their pur-
pose; but I did not expect to see material facts
either suppressed or denied.
The report made by the committee on the first in-
terview with the Council was, I acknowledge, from
memory, and therefore I admit a possibility of error;
but so far as my memory can be relied on, the repre-
sentation was just. And I am certain that there is
a mistake in the insinuation that the circumstance
of the message sent to Congress by the Board of Ser-
geants was not mentioned at all to the Council, for
I have a note of it, taken immediately after the first
conference subsequent to the mutiny. The affair,
by the event of , having assumed a more serious
aspect, I kept a regular minute of the proceedings,
a summary of which made up our report to Congress,
and which I shall annex at large to this letter for
your Excellency's perusal.
The message entirely omits the declaration of the
Council that x ; and the note says that the
Council only declared: "That they could not be
sure that such another insult would produce those
exertions."2 The difference in this article is of
1 This blank is in the manuscript.
2 "The words, as reported by the committee to Congress, were : 'It/
i. e., the arming of the citizens to suppress the mutineers, 'was not to
be expected, merely from a repetition of the insult which had hap-
pened.' " — Note by Col. Pickering.
Private Correspondence 357
great importance. The declaration made so deep
an impression at the time that almost the precise
words remained in my memory. They were twice
repeated, as well when we saw your Excellency alone
in your own house in the morning, as when you de-
livered to us in the Council-chamber the determina-
tion of the Council.
Mr. Ellsworth x in half an hour afterwards re-
peated them to several members of Congress assem-
bled at the President's house, and in a few hours
from that time I committed them to writing. I
cannot suppose your Excellency's recollection fails
you in this particular, and I must pointedly appeal
to your candor.
To show the inaccuracy with which the report of
the committee was composed, it is observed in the
notes with respect to that part which relates to the
commission given by the mutineers to the officers
whom they had chosen to represent them, that only
two hours had intervened between that event and
the conference with the Council, and that it was very
improbable the knowledge of it could have so early
reached the committee. It is added that none of
the Council remembers to have heard a single sylla-
ble respecting it during the whole conference.
As to the argument drawn from the short interval
between the delivery of the commission and the con-
ference, it will be sufficient to say that the committee
held a constant communication with General St.
Clair, and that he kept a vigilant eye upon all the
motions of the mutineers; that his access to them
x "Mr. Ellsworth was the other member of the committee. — T. P."
35 8 Alexander Hamilton
was easy; that the fact in question was a matter of
immediate notoriety ; that two hours were abundant
time for a thing of that nature to be conveyed from
the barracks to General St. Clair's quarters; and
that one of the committee had actually seen and
obtained the intelligence from him a little time be-
fore the interview with the Council commenced.
It is much more extraordinary that the Council
should have been apprised of it so late, than that
the committee should have known it so early. As
to the memory of the Council, it is unfortunate it
should have been so fallible as it is said to have been ;
but I would rather suppose "in the quick succession
of circumstances" the matter had escaped their re-
collection, than that my minutes as well as my mem-
ory should have deceived me. I well recollect also
that your Excellency, when it was mentioned, ac-
knowledged that it rather contradicted the pacific
appearance which the conduct of the troops in other
respects wore.
These are the essential differences in point of fact
between the report of the committee and the message
of the Council; the whole complexion, indeed, of the
one materially varies from the other; but the most
common observer must have noticed how different
an aspect the same facts will bear differently dressed
and arranged. It was to avoid this we proposed to
reduce them to writing, but as this has not been
done, spectators must judge, from the situation of
the parties and the course of the transactions, which
side has given the justest relation.
I cannot, however, forbear remarking that I see
Private Correspondence 359
expressions of civility on the part of the committee,
making a figure in the message very different from
their genuine intention, being introduced in a man-
ner that gives them the air of concessions in favor of
the conduct of the Council. Your Excellency will
certainly recollect that the committee were very
remote from a concurrence in sentiment with the
Council ; and, though they did not presume to judge
of the disposition of the citizens, strongly urged the
expedience and necessity of calling out the militia,
and facility of employing them with success against
an unofficered and disorderly body of mutinous sol-
diers. It is true also that they acknowledged the
candor with which the Council exposed to them
what they deemed the temper of their citizens and
their own difficulties and embarrassments, which
were, no doubt, delineated with great energy of lan-
guage and display of circumstances, but they cer-
tainly never admitted the candor of refusing an
answer in writing, which was a part of the business
transacted with the Council; nor did they withdraw
without giving an intelligible intimation of their
sense of this proceeding.
I was also surprised to see any part of the private
and confidential conversation I had with your Ex-
cellency ushered into the message from the Council,
and moulded into such a shape as to imply, by an
obvious construction, an approbation of their reasons.
Your Excellency will admit the following state of
this transaction to be a just one.
I waited upon the Council to correct a piece of in-
formation I had given them respecting ammunition,
360 Alexander Hamilton
but even this is misstated, as will be seen by my
minutes. Having done this, my official business
ended, when I was taken aside by your Excellency,
and a conversation passed in declared confidence.
You informed me that a meeting of the militia
officers was then holding, and in consultation with
the Council about eventual measures (in conse-
quence, as I conjectured, of a communication to you
the preceding evening from the delegates of the
State, of the intention of Congress to remove from
the city in case they did not receive satisfactory
assurances of support). You added that you hoped
nothing would be precipitated, but that proper al-
lowance would be made for the situation of the
Council.
I understood your observations with reference to
the departure of Congress, and replied to this effect:
That I viewed the departure of Congress as a delicate
measure, including consequences important to the
national character abroad, and critical with respect
to the State of Pennsylvania, and, in particular, the
city of Philadelphia; that the triumph of a handful
of mutinous soldiers, permitted in a place which is
considered as the capital of America, to surround
and, in fact, imprison Congress, without the least
effort on the part of the citizens to uphold their dig-
nity and authority, so as to oblige them to remove
from the place which had been their residence during
the Revolution, would, it was to be feared, be viewed
at a distance as a general disaffection of the citizens
to the Federal Government, might discredit its ne-
gotiations, and affect the national interests ; that at
Private Correspondence 361
home it might give a deep wound to the reputation
of Pennsylvania, might draw upon it the resentments
of the other States, and sow discord between Con-
gress and the State; that the removal of Congress
would probably bring the affair to a crisis, and, by
convincing the mutineers that extremities were in-
tended, would either intimidate them into a sub-
mission, or determine them to immediate excesses;
that, impressed with these considerations, and still
hoping, notwithstanding some appearances to the
contrary, that the mutineers might be sincere in
their professions of submission, or that the Council,
on further examination, would find it in their power
to act with vigor, I had declined giving my assent to
a report in writing, which would necessarily be fol-
lowed by the departure of Congress ; that though the
committee had no discretion by the powers under
which they acted, but were bound, by the tenor of
their instructions, the moment they did not receive
" satisfactory assurances of prompt and adequate
exertions on the part of the State for supporting the
public authority,' ' to advise the adjournment of
Congress to Trenton or Princeton, and I therefore
considered the delay of this advice as at their ex-
treme peril; yet, as to myself, I should persist in it
till the result of the present consultation with the
militia officers, or till some new circumstance should
turn up to explain the designs of the mutineers ; and
in pursuing this line of conduct I should counteract
the sense of some gentlemen whose feelings upon the
occasion were keen, and the opinions of others who
thought the situation of Congress, under the existing
262 Alexander Hamilton
TO ROBERT MORRIS
Albany, July 13, 1782.
Sir:
I have this moment received your letter of the
second inst., and as the post will set out on its return
in half an hour, I have little more than time to ac-
knowledge the receipt of it.
I shall to-morrow morning commence a journey to
Poughkeepsie, where the Legislature are assembled,
and I will endeavor by every step in my power to
second your views, though, I am sorry to add, with-
out very sanguine expectations. I think it proba-
ble the Legislature will do something, but whatever
momentary effort they may make, till the entire
change of their present system very little will be
done. To effect this, mountains of prejudice and
particular interest are to be levelled. For my own
part, considering the late serious misfortune of our
ally, the spirit of reformation, of wisdom, and of
unanimity, which seems to have succeeded to that of
blunder, perverseness, and dissension in the British
Government, and the universal reluctance of these
States to do what is right, I cannot help viewing our
situation as critical, and I feel it the duty of every
citizen to exert his faculties to the utmost to support
the measures, especially those solid arrangements of
finance on which our safety depends.
I will by the next post forward you the bond exe-
cuted with proper sureties.
It is not in the spirit of compliment, but of sin-
cerity, I assure you, that the opinion I entertain of
him who presides in the department was not one of
Private Correspondence 263
the smallest motives to my acceptance of the office;
nor will that esteem and confidence which makes me
now sensibly feel the obliging expressions of your
letter fail to have a great share in influencing my
future exertions.
TO GOVERNOR CLINTON
POUGHKEEPSIE, July l6, 1 782.
Sir:
I have the honor to inclose your Excellency the
copy of a warrant from the Honorable Robert Morris,
Esq., Superintendent of the Finances of the United
States, by which you will perceive that, agreeable to
the resolution of Congress, of the 2d of November
last, he has appointed me Receiver of the Continental
Taxes of the State. I am therefore to request that
the Legislature will be pleased to vest in me the au-
thority required by that resolution.
It is a part of my duty to explain to the Legisla-
ture, from time to time, the views of the Superin-
tendent of Finance, in pursuance of the orders of
Congress, that they may be the better enabled to
judge of the measures most proper to be adopted
for an effectual co-operation. For this purpose I
pray your Excellency to impart my request, that I
may have the honor of a conference with a committee
of the two Houses, at such time and place as they
may find convenient.
364 Alexander Hamilton
The multitude will be very apt to conclude that
the affair was of trifling consequence; that it van-
ished under its own insignificance; that Congress
took up the matter in too high a tone of authority;
that they discovered a prudish nicety and irritability
about their own dignity; that the Council were more
temperate, more humane, and possessed of greater
foresight.
The bias in favor of an injured army, the propen-
sity of the human mind to lean to the speciousness
of professed humanity rather than to the necessary
harshness of authority, the vague and imperfect
notions of what is due to public authority in an
infant popular government, and the insinuating
plausibility of a well-constructed message, will all
contribute to that conclusion.
But let us suppose an impartial man of sense, well
acquainted with facts, to form an argument upon
the subject. It appears to me he might naturally
fall into this train of combination.
It is a well-known fact that, from the necessities
of the war, or the delinquencies of the several States,
Congress were not enabled to comply with their en-
gagements to the army, which, after a glorious and
successful struggle for their country, much suffering,
exemplary patience, and signal desert, they were
compelled, by the irresistible dictates of an empty
treasury and a ruined credit, to disband, after hav-
ing given strong indications of their discontent and
resentment of the public neglect. A large part of
the army suffer themselves to be patiently dismissed ;
a particular corps of four or five hundred men, sta-
Private Correspondence 365
tioned in the place where Congress reside, refuse
to accept their discharges but on certain specified
conditions.
They even go further, and, stimulated by their in-
juries, or encouraged and misled by designing per-
sons, are emboldened to send a threatening message
to Congress, declaring to them that unless they
would do them justice immediately they would find
means of redress for themselves. Measures are in-
directly taken to appease this disorder and give the
discontented soldiers as much satisfaction as the
situation of things will permit. Shortly after, ac-
counts are received that another corps, at
miles' distance, have also mutinied, and that a part
of them, to the number of about eighty men, are on
their march to join those who had already discovered
so refractory a disposition. A committee of Con-
gress is immediately appointed to confer with the
executive of the State on the measures proper to be
pursued in this exigency. That committee in the
first instance suggest to the Council the expedience
of calling out a body of militia to intercept the de-
tachment of mutineers on its march and represent
the danger of the progress of the spirit of mutiny
and of future outrages should those on their march
be suffered without molestation, to join a more nu-
merous corps in the same temper with themselves.
The Council urge a variety of difficulties: the
shortness of the time to collect the militia before
the mutineers would arrive, the reluctance with
which the citizens would obey a call against men
whom they consider as meritorious, and injured,
366 Alexander Hamilton
and the like. The committee perceiving the tin-
willingness of the Council to employ the militia,
desist from pressing, and recur to expedients. The
day after, the mutineers march in triumph into the
city, and unite themselves with those who are al-
ready there ; and the following day, the whole body
assemble in arms, throw off all obedience to their
officers, and, in open defiance of government, march
to the place which is the usual seat of Congress and
the Council of the State, while both are actually
sitting ; surround it with guards, and send a message
to the Council, demanding authority to appoint,
themselves, officers to command them, with abso-
lute discretion to take such measures as those officers
should think proper to redress their grievances, ac-
companied with a threat that, if there was not
a compliance in twenty minutes, they would let in
an injured soldiery upon them, and abide the
consequence.
The members of Congress who were at the time
assembled, request General St. Clair, who happened
to be present, to take such measures as he should
judge expedient, without committing the honor of
government, to divert the storm, and induce the
troops to return to their quarters without perpetrat-
ing acts of violence. General St. Clair, in concert
with the Council, grants the mutineers permission
to elect, out of officers then or formerly in com-
mission, such as they should confide in, to repre-
sent their grievances to the Council, with a promise
that the Council would confer with the persons
elected for that purpose, Having obtained this
Private Correspondence 367
promise, the mutineers return to their quarters, in
military parade, and continue in open defiance of
government.
The concession made was a happy compromise
between an attention to dignity and a prudent re-
gard to safety.
Men who had dared to carry their insolence to
such an extreme, and who saw no opposition to their
outrages, were not to be expected to retreat without
an appearance, at least, of gratifying their demands.
The slightest accident were sufficient to prompt men
in such a temper and situation to tragical excesses.
But however it might become the delicacy of gov-
ernment not to depart from the promise it had given,
it was its duty to provide effectually against a re-
petition of such outrages, and to put itself in a situa-
tion to give, instead of receiving, the law, and to
manifest that its compliance was not the effect of
necessity, but of choice.
This was not to be considered as the disorderly
riot of an unarmed mob, but as the deliberate mutiny
of an incensed soldiery, carried to the utmost point
of outrage short of assassination. The licentious-
ness of an army is to be dreaded in every govern-
ment, but in a republic it is more particularly to be
restrained; and when directed against the civil au-
thority, to be checked with energy and punished
with severity. The merits and sufferings of the
troops might be a proper motive for mitigating
punishment, when it was in the power of the gov-
ernment to inflict it ; but it was no reason for relax-
ing in the measures necessary to put itself in that
368 Alexander Hamilton
situation. Its authority was first to be vindicated,
and then its clemency to be displayed.
The rights of government are as essential to be
defended as the rights of individuals. The security
of the one is inseparable from that of the other.
And, indeed, in every new government, especially of
the popular kind, the great danger is that public
authority will not be sufficiently respected.
But upon this occasion there were more particular
reasons for decision.
Congress knew there were within two or three
days' march of the city a more considerable body of
the same corps, part of which had mutinied and
come to town, and had been the chief actors in the
late disorder; that those men had with difficulty
been kept, by the exertions of their officers, from
joining the insurgents in the first instance; that
there was another corps in their neighborhood
which, a little time before, had also discovered symp-
toms of mutiny; that a considerable part of the
same line which were in mutiny in town was every
moment expected to arrive from the southward, and
there was the greatest reason to conclude would be
infected with the same spirit on their arrival, as had
presently happened in the case of a small detach-
ment which had joined a few days before; that there
were besides large numbers of disbanded soldiers
scattered through the country, in want, and who
had not yet had time to settle down to any occupa-
tion, and exchange their military for private habits;
that some of these were really coming in and add-
ing themselves to the revolters; that an extensive
Private Correspondence 369
accession of strength might be gained from these
different quarters, and that there were all the sympa-
thies of like common wrongs, distresses, and resent-
ments to bring them together and to unite them in
one cause. The partial success of those who had
already made an experiment would be a strong en-
couragement to others, the rather as the whole line
had formerly mutinied, not only with impunity, but
with advantage to themselves.
In this state of things, decision was most compat-
ible with the safety of the community, as well as
the dignity of government. Though no general
convulsion might be to be apprehended, serious mis-
chiefs might attend the progress of the disorder.
Indeed it would have been meanness to have nego-
tiated and temporized with an armed banditti of
four or five hundred men, who, in any other situa-
tion than surrounding a defenceless senate, could
only become formidable by being feared. This was
not an insurrection of a whole people ; it was not an
army, with their officers at their head, demanding the
justice of their country — either of which might have
made caution and concession respectable ; it was a
handful of mutinous soldiers, who had equally violated
the laws of discipline and rights of public authority.
Congress therefore wisely resolve that " it is neces-
sary that effectual measures be immediately taken
for supporting the public authority/ ' and call upon
the State in which they reside for assistance of its
militia, at the same time that they send orders for
the march of a body of regular forces as an eventual
resource.
VOL. IX.— 24.
37° Alexander Hamilton
There was a propriety in calling for the aid of the
militia, in the first place, for different reasons. Civil
government may always, with more peculiar pro-
priety, resort to the aid of the citizens to repel mili-
tary insults or encroachments.
'T is there, it ought to be supposed, where it may
seek its surest dependence, especially in a democ-
racy which is the creature of the people. The citi-
zens of each State are, in an aggregate light, the
citizens of the United States, and bound as much to
support the representatives of the whole as their
own immediate representatives. The insult was not
to Congress personally; it was to the government,
to public authority in general, and was very properly
put upon that footing. The regular forces which
Congress could command were at a great distance,
and could not, but in a length of time, be brought to
effectuate their purpose. The disorder continued to
exist on the spot where they were, was likely to in-
crease by delay, and might be productive of sudden
and mischievous effects by being neglected.
The city and the bank were in immediate danger
of being rifled, and perhaps of suffering other calami-
ties. The citizens, therefore, were the proper per-
sons to make the first exertion.
The objection that these were not the objects of
the care of Congress, can only serve to mislead the
vulgar. The peace and safety of the place which
was the immediate residence of Congress, endan-
gered, too, by the troops of the United States, demanded
their interposition. The President of the State of
Pennsylvania was himself of this opinion, having
Private Correspondence 371
declared to a member of that body, that, as their
troops were the offenders, it was proper for them to
declare the necessity of calling out the militia, as a
previous step to its being done.
Nor is there more weight in the supposition that
the danger was inconsiderable, and that, from the
pacific appearances of the troops, it was to be ex-
pected the disorder would subside of itself. The
facts were, that the troops still continued in a state
of mutiny, had made no submissions nor offered any,
and that they effected to negotiate with their arms
in their hands.
A band of mutinous soldiers in such a situation,
uncontrolled, and elated with their own power, was
not to be trusted.
The most sudden vicissitudes and contradictory
changes were to be expected, and a fit of intoxica-
tion was sufficient at any moment, with men who
had already gone such length, to make the city a
scene of plunder and massacre. It was the height
of rashness to leave the city exposed to the bare
possibility of such mischiefs.
The only question, in this view, is, whether there
was greater danger to the city in attempting their
reduction by force, than in endeavoring by pallia-
tives to bring them to a sense of duty ? It has been
urged, and appeared to have operated strongly upon
the minds of the Council,1 that the soldiers being
already embodied, accustomed to arms, and ready
1 Your Excellency will recollect that in our private conversation you
urged this consideration, and appealed to my military experience, and
that I made substantially the observations which follow.
372 Alexander Hamilton
to act at a moment's warning, it would be extremely
hazardous to attempt to collect the citizens to sub-
due them, as the mutineers might have taken advan-
tage of the first confusion incident to the measure
to do a great deal of mischief before this militia
could have assembled in equal or superior force.
It is not to be denied that a small body of disci-
plined troops, headed and lead by their officers, with
a plan of conduct, could have effected a great deal
in similar circumstances; but it is equally certain
that nothing can be more contemptible than a body
of men used to be commanded and to obey, when
deprived of the example and direction of their
officers. They are infinitely less to be dreaded than
an equal number of men who have never been
broken to command, nor exchanged their natural
courage for that artificial kind which is the effect of
discipline and habit. Soldiers transfer their con-
fidence from themselves to their officers, face danger
by the force of example, the dread of punishment,
and the sense of necessity. Take away these induce-
ments and leave them to themselves, they are no
longer resolute than till they are opposed.
In the present case it was to be relied upon that
the appearance of opposition would instantly bring
the mutineers to a sense of their insignificance and
to submission. Conscious of their weakness from
the smallness of their numbers, in a populous city
and in the midst of a populous country, awed by
the consequences of resisting government by arms,
and confounded by the want of proper leaders and
proper direction, the common soldiers would have
Private Correspondence 373
thought of nothing but making their peace by the
sacrifice of those who had been the authors of their
misconduct.
The idea, therefore, of coercion was the safest and
most prudent, for more was to be apprehended from
leaving them to their own passions than from at-
tempting to control them by force. It will be seen,
by and by, how far the events, justly appreciated,
correspond with this reasoning.
Congress were not only right in adopting measures
of coercion, but they were also right in resolving to
change their situation if proper exertions were not
made by the particular government and citizens of
the place where they resided. The want of such
exertions would evince some defect, no matter where,
that would prove they ought to have no confidence
in their situation. They were, to all intents and
purposes, in the power of a lawless, armed banditti,
enraged, whether justly or not, against them. How-
ever they might have had a right to expose their own
persons to insult and outrage, they had no right to
expose the character of representatives, or the dig-
nity of the States they represented, or of the Union.
It was plain they could not with propriety, in such
a state of things, proceed in their deliberations where
they were, and it was right they should repair to a
place where they could do it. It was far from im-
possible that the mutineers might have been in-
duced to seize their persons as hostages for their own
security, as well as with a hope of extorting conces-
sions. Had such an event taken place the whole
country would have exclaimed: Why did not Con-
374 Alexander Hamilton
gress withdraw from a place where they found they
could not be assured of support; where the govern-
ment was so feeble, or the citizens so indisposed, as
to suffer three or four hundred mutinous soldiers to
violate, with impunity, the authority of the United
States and of their own State?
When they resolved to depart, on the want of ade-
quate exertions, they had reason to doubt their
being made, from the disinclination shown by the
Council to call out the militia in the first instance;
and when they did actually depart they were in-
formed by the Council that the efforts of the citizens
were not to be looked for, even from a repetition of
the outrage which had already happened, and it was
to be doubted what measure of outrage would pro-
duce them. They had also convincing proof that
the mutiny was more serious than it had even at
first appeared, by the participation of some of the
officers.
To throw the blame of harshness and precipitancy
upon Congress, it is said that their dignity was only
accidentally and undesignedly offended. Much stress
has been laid upon the message from the soldiery
being directed to the Council, and not to them. All
this, however, is very immaterial to the real merits
of the question. Whatever might have been the
first intention of the mutineers in this particular act,
whether it proceeded from artifice or confusion of
ideas, the indignity to Congress was the same. They
knew that Congress customarily held their delibera-
tions at the State House ; and if it even be admitted
that they knew Saturday to be a day of usual recess,
Private Correspondence 375
which, perhaps, is not altogether probable, when
they came to the place they saw and knew Congress
to be assembled there. They did not desist in con-
sequence of this, but proceeded to station their
guards and execute their purposes. Members of Con-
gress went out to them, remonstrated with them,
represented the danger of their proceedings to them-
selves, and desired them to withdraw ; but they per-
sisted till they obtained what they supposed a part
of their object. A majority of the same persons had,
some days before, sent a message, almost equally
exceptionable, to Congress; and at the time they
scarcely spoke of any other body than Congress, who,
indeed, may naturally be supposed to have been
the main object of their resentments: for Congress,
having always appeared to the soldiery to be the
body who contracted with them, and who had broken
faith with them, it is not to be supposed they were
capable of investigating the remote causes of the
failures, so as to transfer the odium from Congress
to the State.
But the substantial thing to be considered in this
question is the violation of public authority. It
cannot be disputed that the mutiny of troops is a
violation of that authority to which they owe obe-
dience. This was, in the present case, aggravated
to a high degree of atrociousness by the gross insult
to the government of Pennsylvania, in the face of
Congress and in defiance of their displeasure. It
was further aggravated by continuing in that condi-
tion for a series of time.
The reasons have been assigned that made it
3/6 Alexander Hamilton
incumbent upon Congress to interpose; and when
they called upon the State of Pennsylvania, not only
to vindicate its own rights, but to support their au-
thority, the declining a compliance was a breach of
the Confederation and of the duty which the State of
Pennsylvania owed to the United States. The best
apology for the government of Pennsylvania, in this
case, is that they could not command the sendees of
their citizens. But so improper a disposition in the
citizens, if admitted, must operate as an additional
justification to Congress in their removal.
The subsequent events, justly appreciated, illus-
trate the propriety of their conduct. The mutineers
did not make voluntary submissions in consequence
of negotiation, persuasion, or conviction. They did
not submit till after Congress had left the city, pub-
lishing their intentions of coercion; till after there
had been an actual call upon the militia; till their
leaders and instigators, alarmed by the approach of
force and the fear of being betrayed by the men,
fled. They were reduced by coercion, not overcome
by mildness.
It appears, too, that while they were professing
repentance and a return to their duty, they were
tampering with the troops at Yorktown and Lan-
caster to increase their strength, and that two
officers, at least, were concerned in the mutiny, who,
by their letters since, have confessed that some pro-
ject of importance was in contemplation.
The call for the militia was made the day after
it had been pronounced ineligible by the Council.
There could have been little change in that time,
Private Correspondence 377
either in the temper or preparations of the citizens.
The truth is, that the departure of Congress brought
the matter to a crisis, and that the Council were com-
pelled by necessity to do what they ought to have
done before through choice.
It is to be lamented they did not, by an earlier
decision, prevent the necessity of Congress taking a
step which may have many disagreeable conse-
quences. They then would * * *
[The rest of the manuscript is lacking.]
TO JAMES MADISON, JR.
Princetown, June 29, 1783
Dear Sir:
I am informed that among other disagreeable
things said about the removal of Congress from
Philadelphia, it is insinuated that it was a contriv-
ance of some members to get them out of the State
of Pennsylvania into one of those to which they
belonged; and I am told that this insinuation has
been pointed at me in particular.
Though I am persuaded that all disinterested
persons will justify Congress in quitting a place
where they were told they were not to expect sup-
port (for the conduct of the Council amounted to
that), yet I am unwilling to be held up as having
had an extraordinary agency in the measure for in-
terested purposes when the fact is directly the re-
verse. As you were a witness to my conduct and
opinions through the whole of the transaction, I am
induced to trouble you for your testimony upon this
378 Alexander Hamilton
occasion. I do not mean to make a public use of it,
but, through my friends, to vindicate myself from
the imputations I have mentioned.
I will therefore request your answers to the follow-
ing questions:
Did that part of the resolutions which related to
the removal of Congress originate with me or not ?
Did I, as a member of the committee, appear to
press the departure, or did I not rather manifest a
strong disposition to postpone that event as long as
possible, even against the general current of opinion ?
I wish you to be as particular and full in your
answer as your memory will permit. I think you
will recollect that my idea was clearly this: That
the mutiny ought not to be terminated by negocia-
tion; that Congress were justifiable in leaving a
place where they did not receive the support which
they had a right to expect, but, as their removal was
a measure of a critical and delicate nature, might
have an ill appearance in Europe, and might, from
events, be susceptible of an unfavorable interpreta-
tion in this country, it was prudent to delay it till its
necessity became apparent; not only till it was
manifest there would be no change in the spirit
which seemed to actuate the Council, but till it was
evident complete submission was not to be expected
from the troops; that to give full time for this it
would be proper to delay the departure of Congress
till the latest period which would be compatible with
the idea of meeting at Trenton or Princeton on
Thursday — perhaps even till Thursday morning.
Private Correspondence 379
TO JAMES MADISON, JR.
Philadelphia, July 6, 1783.
Dear Sir:
On my arrival in this city I am more convinced
than I was of the necessity of giving a just state of
fact to the public. The current runs strongly against
Congress, and in a great measure for want of informa-
tion. When facts are explained they make an im-
pression, and incline to conclusions more favorable
to us.
I have no copy of the reports in my possession,
which puts it out of my power to publish them. Will
you procure and send me one without loss of time?
Without appearing, I intend to give them to the
public with some additional explanations. This done
with moderation will, no doubt, have a good effect.
The prevailing idea is, that the actors in the re-
moval of Congress were influenced by the desire of
getting them out of the city, and the generality of
the remainder by timidity — some say passion. Few
give a more favorable interpretation.
I will thank you in your letter to me to answer the
following question:
What appeared to be my ideas and disposition re-
specting the removal of Congress? Did I appear to
wish to hasten it, or did I not rather show a strong
disposition to procrastinate it?
I will be obliged to you in answering this question
to do it fully. I do not intend to make any public
use of it, but through my friends to vindicate myself
from the insinuation I have mentioned, and in that
to confute the supposition that the motive assigned
380 Alexander Hamilton
did actuate the members on whom it fell to be more
particularly active.
TO MRS. HAMILTON
Philadelphia, July 22, 1783.
I wrote you, my beloved Eliza, by the last post,
which I hope will not meet with the fate that many
others of my letters must have met with. I count
upon setting out to see you in four days, but I have
been so frequently disappointed by unforeseen events,
that I shall not be without apprehensions of being
detained, till I have begun my journey. The mem-
bers of Congress are very pressing with me not to
go away at this time, as the House is thin, and as the
definitive treaty is momently expected.
Tell your father that Mr. Rivington,1 in a letter
to the South Carolina delegates, has given informa-
tion, coming to him from Admiral Arbuthnot, that
the Mercury frigate is arrived at New York with the
definitive treaty, and that the city was to be evacu-
ated yesterday by the treaty.
I am strongly urged to stay a few days for the
ratification of the treaty; at all events, however, I
will not be long absent.
I give you joy of the happy conclusion of this im-
portant work in which your country has been en-
gaged. Now, in a very short time, I hope we shall
be happily settled in New York.
My love to your father. Kiss my boy a thousand
times.
1 Probably the well known New York publisher of that name.
Private Correspondence 381
TO JOHN JAY
Philadelphia, July 25, 1783.
Dear Sir:
Though I have not performed my promise of
writing to you which I made you when you left this
country, yet I have not the less interested myself in
your welfare and success. I have been witness with
pleasure to every event which has had a tendency
to advance you in the esteem of your country, and
I may assure you with sincerity that it is as high as
you could possibly wish. All have united in the
warmest approbation of your .conduct. I cannot
forbear telling you this, because my situation has
given me access to the truth, and I gratify my
friendship for you in communicating what cannot
fail to gratify your sensibility.
The peace, which exceeds in the goodness of its
terms the expectations of the most sanguine, does
the highest honor to those who made it. It is the
more agreeable, as the time was come when thinking
men began to be seriously alarmed at the internal
embarrassments and exhausted state of this country.
The New England people talk of making you an
annual fish-offering, as an acknowledgment of your
exertions for the participation of the fisheries. We
have now happily concluded the great work of inde-
pendence, but much remains to be done to reap the
fruits of it. Our prospects are not flattering. Every
day proves the inefficiency of the present Confedera-
tion ; yet the common danger being removed, we are
receding instead of advancing in a disposition to
amend its defects. The road to popularity in each
382 Alexander Hamilton
State is to inspire jealousies of the power of Con-
gress, though nothing can be more apparent than
that they have no power; and that for the want of
it, the resources of the country during the war could
not be drawn out, and we at this moment experience
all the mischiefs of a bankrupt and ruined credit. It
is to be hoped that when prejudice and folly have
run themselves out of breath, we may return to
reason and correct our errors. After having served
in the field during the war, I have been making a
short apprenticeship in Congress, but the evacuation
of New York approaching, I am preparing to take
leave of public life, to enter into the practice of the
law. Your country will continue to demand your
services abroad. I beg you to present me most re-
spectfully to Mrs. Jay, and to be assured, etc.1
TO GOVERNOR CLINTON
Princeton, July 27, 1783.
Sir:
A few days since I was honored with your Ex-
cellency's letter of the ; and was glad to find
your ideas on the subject corresponded with mine.
As I shall, in a day or two, take leave of Congress,
I think it my duty to give my opinion to the Legis-
lature on a matter of importance to the State, which
has been long depending, and is still without a pros-
pect of termination in the train in which it has been
placed. I mean the affair of the Grants.2 It is
1 Reprinted from W. Jay's Life of John Jay, ii., 122.
2 This refers to the dispute as to the territory now forming the State
of Vermont.
Private Correspondence 383
hazardous to pass a positive judgment on what will
happen in a body so mutable as that of Congress;
but, from all I have seen, I have come to a settled
opinion that no determination will be taken and
executed by them in any other manner than in that
prescribed by the Confederation. There is always
such a diversity of views and interests, so many
compromises to be made between different States,
that, in a question of this nature, the embarrass-
ments of which have been increased by the steps
that have preceded, and in which the passions of the
opposite sides have taken a warm part, decision
must be the result of necessity. While Congress
have a discretion, they will procrastinate; when
they are bound by the Constitution, they must
proceed.
It is therefore my opinion that it will be advisable
for the Legislature, when they meet, to review the
question, and either to relinquish their pretensions
to the country in dispute, or to instruct their dele-
gates, if a decision is not had within a limited time,
to declare the submission to Congress revoked, and
to institute a claim according to the principles of the
Confederation.
It would be out of my province to discuss which
side of the alternate ought in policy to prevail, but
I will take the liberty to observe, that if the last
should be preferred, it would be expedient to remove
every motive of opposition from private claims, not
only by confirming in their full latitude, previous to
the trial, the possessions of the original settlers, but
even the grants of the usurped government. It
384 Alexander Hamilton
may happen that it will be eventually necessary
to employ force, and in this case it would be of
great importance that neither the inhabitants of the
Grants, nor powerful individuals in other States,
should find their private interest in contradiction to
that of the State. This has already had great in-
fluence in counteracting our wishes, would continue
to throw impediments in the way of ulterior measures,
and might at last kindle a serious flame between the
States.
I communicated to your Excellency, in a former
letter, that I had declined pressing the application
of the Legislature to Congress respecting the State
troops for garrisoning the frontier posts, because
temporary provision had been made in another way
which would save the State the immediate expense,
and because there was a prospect of some general
provision for the defence of the frontiers on a Conti-
nental establishment, which was to be preferred on
every account. A report for this purpose is now
before Congress, but the thinness of representation
has for some time retarded, and still retards, its
consideration.
The definitive treaty is not yet arrived, but
from accounts which, though not official, appear to
deserve credit, it may be daily expected. A gentle-
man known and confided in, has arrived at Phila-
delphia, who informs that he saw a letter from Dr.
Franklin to Mr. Barkeley, telling him that the defini-
tive treaties were signed the 27 th of May between
all the parties; that New York was to be evacuated
in six months from the ratification of the prelimi-
Private Correspondence 385
naries in Europe, which will be the 12th or 15th of
next month.
As it is not my intention to return to Congress, I
take this opportunity to make my respectful ac-
knowledgements to the Legislature for the honorable
mark of their confidence conferred upon me by hav-
ing chosen me to represent the State in that body.
I shall be happy if my conduct has been agreeable to
them.
TO WASHINGTON
Albany, September 30, 1783.
Dear Sir:
As I natter myself I may indulge a consciousness
that my services have been of some value to the
public, at least enough to merit the small compensa-
tion I wish, I will make no apology to your Excel-
lency for conveying, through you, that wish to
Congress. You are able to inform them, if they
wish information, in what degree I may have been
useful ; and I have entire confidence that you will do
me justice.
In a letter which I wrote to you several months
ago, I intimated that it might be in your power
to contribute to the establishment of our Federal
Union upon a more solid basis. I have never since
explained myself. At the time, I was in hopes Con-
gress might have been induced to take a decisive
ground; to inform their constituents of the imper-
fections of the present system, and of the impossi-
bility of conducting the public affairs, with honor to
vol. ix.— 25.
386 Alexander Hamilton
themselves and advantage to the community, with
powers so disproportioned to their responsibility;
and, having done this, in a full and forcible manner,
to adjourn the moment the definitive treaty was
ratified. In retiring at the same juncture, I wished
you, in a solemn manner, to declare to the people
your intended retreat from public concerns, your
opinion of the present government, and of the abso-
lute necessity of a change.
Before I left Congress I despaired of the first, and
your circular-letter to the States had anticipated the
last. I trust it will not be without effect, though I
am persuaded it would have had more, combined
with what I have mentioned. At all events, without
compliment, sir, it will do you honor with the sen-
sible and well-meaning; and, ultimately, it is to be
hoped, with the people at large, when the present
epidemic frenzy has subsided.
Mrs. Hamilton presents her compliments to Mrs.
Washington.
I beg the favor of your Excellency to forward the
enclosed to General Greene.
TO WASHINGTON
Albany, September 30,1783.
Sir:
I think I may address the subject of this letter to
your Excellency with more propriety than to any
other person, as it is purely of a military nature, as
you are best acquainted with my services as an
officer, and as you are now engaged in assisting to
Private Correspondence 387
form the arrangements for the future peace establish-
ment.
Your Excellency knows that in March, '82, I re-
linquished all claim to any future compensation for
my services, either during the residue of the war, or
after its conclusion — simply retaining my rank. On
this foundation I build a hope that I may be per-
mitted to preserve my rank, on the peace establish-
ment, without emoluments and unattached to any
corps — as an honorary reward for the time I have
devoted to the public. As I may hereafter travel,
I may find it an agreeable circumstance to appear in
the character I have supported in the Revolution.
I rest my claim solely on the sacrifice I have made,
because I have no reason to believe that my services
have appeared of any value to Congress, as they de-
clined giving them any marks of their notice, on an
occasion which appeared to my friends to entitle me
to it, as well by the common practice of sovereigns
as by the particular practice of this country in re-
peated instances.
Your Excellency will recollect that it was my lot
at York Town to command, as senior officer, a suc-
cessful attack upon one of the enemy's redoubts;
that the officer who acted in a similar capacity in
another attack, made at the same time, by the French
troops, has been handsomely distinguished in con-
sequence of it by the government to which he be-
longs; and that there are several examples among
us where Congress have bestowed honors upon ac-
tions, perhaps not more useful, nor apparently more
hazardous.
388 Alexander Hamilton
These observations are inapplicable to the present
Congress, further than as they may possibly furnish
an additional motive to a compliance with my wish.
The only thing I ask of your Excellency is, that
my application may come into view in the course of
the consultations on the peace establishment.
TO GOVERNOR CLINTON
Albany, October 3, 1783.
Sir:
I have lately received, from Messrs. Duane and
L'Hommedieu, an extract of a letter from your Ex-
cellency to the delegates, of the 23d of August last,
requesting " a particular detail of the motives which
influenced the determination of Congress ' ' respecting
the application of the Legislature to have their State
troops released from Continental pay, for the pur-
pose of garrisoning the frontier posts.
In my letters to your Excellency of the first of
June and twenty-seventh of July, which were in-
tended to be official, I summarily informed you that
Congress had made temporary provision for garri-
soning the frontier posts, and that a plan was under
deliberation relative to a peace establishment, which
would, of course, embrace that object permanently;
that such temporary provision being made at the
common expense, and a general plan being under
consideration for the future, I had declined pressing
a compliance with the application of the Legislature ;
conceiving it to be more for the interest of the State
Private Correspondence 389
that the expense should be jointly borne, than that
it should fall exclusively upon itself.
I did not enter into a more full detail upon the
subject, because the business continued, to the time
I left Congress, in an undecided state, and it was im-
possible to judge what views would finally prevail.
The concurrent resolutions of the two Houses had
been, immediately on their receipt, referred to a
committee appointed to report on a peace establish-
ment, who had suspended their report on these reso-
lutions until it should appear what would be the fate
of a general plan which had been submitted.
As to the motives that influenced Congress in
making the provision they did make, rather than
immediately assenting to the application of the
State, as far as I was able to collect them, they were
these: The opinions of many were unsettled as to
the most eligible mode of providing for the security
of the frontiers consistent with the Constitution, as
well with respect to the general policy of the Union,
as to considerations of justice to those States whose
frontiers were more immediately exposed. A con-
siderable part of the House appeared to think, from
reasons of a very cogent nature, that the well-being
of the Union required a federal provision for the
security of the different parts, and that it would be
a great hardship to individual States peculiarly cir-
cumstanced to throw the whole burthen of expense
upon them by recurring to separate provisions in a
matter, the benefit of which would be immediately
shared by their neighbors, and ultimately by the
Union at large; that indeed it was not probable
39° Alexander Hamilton
particular States would be either able or, upon experi-
ment, willing to make competent provision at their
separate expense, and that the principle might
eventually excite jealousies between the States un-
friendly to the common tranquillity.
I freely confess I was one who held this opinion.
Questions naturally arose as to the true construc-
tion of the articles of Confederation upon this head;
questions as delicate, as interesting, and as difficult
of solution.
On one hand it was doubted whether Congress
were authorized by the Confederation to proceed
upon the idea of a federal provision ; on the other, it
was perceived that such a contrary construction
would be dangerous to the Union, including, among
other inconveniences, this consequence, that the
United States, in Congress, cannot raise a single
regiment, nor equip a single ship, for the general
defence, till after the declaration of war, or an
actual commencement of hostilities.
In this dilemma, on an important constitutional
question, other urgent matters depending before
Congress, and the advanced season requiring a de-
termination upon the mode of securing the Western
posts in case of a surrender this fall, all sides of the
House concurred in making a temporary provision,
in the manner which has been communicated.
My apprehension of the views of the Legislature
was simply this: That, looking forward to a sur-
render of the posts, and conceiving, from some
expressions in the articles of Confederation, that
separate provision was to be made for the frontier
Private Correspondence 391
garrisons, they had thought it expedient to apply
the troops already on foot to that purpose, and to
propose to Congress to give their sanction to it.
Under this apprehension, reflecting besides, that
those troops were engaged only for a short period,
upon a very improper establishment to continue, on
account of the enormous pay to the private men,
and that the expense which is now shared by all, and
which would have fallen solely upon the State had the
application been complied with, would probably be
at the rate of nearly eighty thousand dollars per an-
num, a considerable sum for the State in its present
situation — I acknowledge to your Excellency that I
saw with pleasure, rather than regret, the turn which
the affair took. I shall be sorry, however, if it has
contravened the intentions of the Legislature.
I will take the liberty to add upon this occasion
that it has always appeared to me of great impor-
tance, to this State in particular as well as to the
Union in general, that Federal rather than State
provision should be made for the defence of every
part of the Confederacy, in peace as well as in war.
Without entering into arguments of general policy,
it will be sufficient to observe that this State is in
all respects critically situated.
Its relative position, shape, and intersections,
viewed on the map, strongly speak this language:
Strengthen the Confederation; give it exclusively
the power of the sword; let each State have no
forces but its militia.
As a question of mere economy, the following con-
siderations deserve great weight;
39 2 Alexander Hamilton
The North River facilitates attacks by sea and by-
land; and, besides the frontier forts, all military
men are of opinion that a strong post should be
maintained at West Point, or some other position on
the lower part of the river.
If Canada is well governed, it may become well
peopled, and by inhabitants attached to its govern-
ment. The British nation, while it preserves the
idea of retaining possession of that country, may be
expected to keep on foot there a large force. The
position of that force, either for defence or offence,
will necessarily be such as will afford a prompt and
easy access to us.
Our precautions for defence must be proportioned
to their means of annoying us, and we may here-
after find it indispensable to increase our frontier
garrisons.
The present charge of a competent force in that
quarter, thrown additionally into the scale of those
contributions which we must make to the payment
of the public debt and to other objects of general ex-
pense if the Union lasts, would, I fear, enlarge our
burden beyond our ability: that charge, hereafter
increased as it may be, would be oppressively felt by
the people. It includes not only the expense of pay-
ing and subsisting the necessary number of troops,
but of keeping the fortifications in repair, probably
of erecting others, and of furnishing the requisite
supplies of military stores. I say nothing of the In-
dian nations, because, though it will be always pru-
dent to be upon our guard against them, yet I am of
opinion we diminish the necessity of it by making
Private Correspondence 393
them our friends; and I take it for granted there
cannot be a serious doubt anywhere as to the ob-
vious policy of endeavoring to do it. Their friend-
ship alone can keep our frontiers in peace. It is
essential to the improvement of the fur trade; an
object of immense importance to the State. The
attempt at the total expulsion of so desultory a
people is as chimerical as it would be pernicious.
War with them is as expensive as it is destructive.
It has not a single object, for the acquisition of their
lands is not to be wished till those now vacant are
settled ; and the surest, as well as the most just and
humane way of removing them, is by extending our
settlements to their neighborhood.
Indeed, it is not impossible they may be already
willing to exchange their former possessions for
others more remote.
The foregoing considerations would lose all force
if we had full security that the rest of the world
would make our safety and prosperity the first ob-
ject of their reverence and care; but an expectation
of this kind would be too much against the ordinary
course of human affairs — too visionary to be a rule
for national conduct.
It is true our situation secures us from conquest,
if internal dissensions do not open the way; but
when nations now make war upon each other, the
object seldom is total conquest — partial acquisitions,
the jealousy of power, the rivalship of dominion or
of commerce, sometimes national emulation and
antipathy, are the motives.
Nothing shelters us from the operation of either
394 Alexander Hamilton
of these causes. The fisheries, the fur trade, the
navigation of the lakes and of the Mississippi, the
Western territory, the islands of the West Indies,
with reference to traffic, — in short, the passions of
human nature, are abundant sources of contention
and hostility.
I will not trespass further on your Excellency's
patience. I expected indeed that my last letter
would have finished my official communications, but
Messrs. Duane and L'Hommedieu having trans-
mitted the extract of your letter to Mr. Floyd and
myself, in order that we might comply with what
your Excellency thought would be expected by the
Legislature, it became my duty to give this explana-
tion. Mr. Floyd having been at Congress but a
little time after the concurrent resolutions arrived,
and being now at a great distance from me, occa-
sions a separate communication.
N. B. — I did not at the time enclose the resolution
directing the General to provide for garrisoning the
frontier posts, because I understood it would in
course be transmitted to you by the President or the
Secretary at War.
TO THE HONORABLE THOMAS MIFFLIN, PRESIDENT OF
CONGRESS
New York, Dec. 8, 1783.
Sir:
Being concerned as counsel for a number of persons
who have been, since the annunciation of the pro-
Private Correspondence 395
visional treaty, indicted under the confiscation laws
of this State for the part they are supposed to have
taken in the late war, we are induced, at the desire
of our clients and in their behalf, to apply to Con-
gress, through your Excellency, for an exemplifica-
tion of the definitive treaty. We take it for granted
that ere this it will have been [done under the] direc-
tion of the United States. We have found a great
strictness in the courts in this State. It will, we ap-
prehend, be necessary to be able to produce an ex-
emplification of the treaty under the seal of the
United States. In a matter so interesting to a great
number of individuals — for it does not belong to us
to urge considerations of national honor, — we hope
we shall be excused when we observe that there
appears to be no probability that the Legislature of
this State will interpose its authority to put a stop
to prosecutions till the definitive treaty is announced
in form. In the mean time a period is limited for
the appearance of the indicted persons to plead to
their indictments, and if they neglect to appear,
judgment by default will be entered against them.
It is therefore of great consequence to them that we
should have in our possession as speedily as possible
an authentic document of the treaty and of its rati-
fication by Congress; and we, on this account, pray
an exemplification of both.
We persuade ourselves that the justice and liberal-
ity of Congress will induce a ready compliance with
our prayer, which will conduce to the security of a
great number of individuals who derive their hopes
of safety from the national faith.
396 Alexander Hamilton
TO JOHN BARKER CHURCH ■
New York, March 10, 1784.
My Dear Sir:
In my last to you I informed you that a project
for a land bank had been set on foot by Mr. Sayre
as the ostensible parent, but I had reason to suspect
the Chancellor 2 was the true father. The fact has
turned out as I supposed, and the Chancellor, with
a number of others, has since petitioned the Legis-
lature for an exclusive charter for the proposed bank.
I thought it necessary not only with a view to your
project, but for the sake of the commercial interests
of the State, to start an opposition to this scheme and
took occasion to point out its absurdity and incon-
venience to some of the most intelligent merchants,
who presently saw the matter in a proper light and
began to take measures to defeat the plan.
The Chancellor had taken so much pains with
the country members that they all began to be per-
1 John Barker Church, who married Angelica Schuyler, the sister
of Mrs. Hamilton, was an Englishman by birth: and Lossing ( Life of
Schuyler, ii., p. 207) says that his name was Carter, and that he added
the Church in this country and dropped it when on a visit to England.
There is also a letter signed John Carter, addressed to Hamilton, and
dated May 18, 1781, which seems to confirm Lossing. Yet there can
be no doubt that here he was known as John Barker Church, because
he is so described by Hamilton in a letter to Troup about his will, and
Mr. Geo. L. Schuyler, of New York, very kindly writes me that Church
was called John Barker in the will of Mr. Schuyler's grandfather, Gen.
Schuyler. Church was associated with Col. Wadsworth in furnishing
supplies to the French and American armies. Some time after his
marriage, according to Lossing, he returned to England, became a
member of Parliament, went much into society, and was a friend of
the Prince of Wales and in the Carlton House set. He finally returned
to New York where he remained until his death at an advanced age.
* The Chancellor was Robert R. Livingston.
Private Correspondence 397
suaded that the land bank was the true philosopher's
stone that was to turn all their rocks and trees into
gold, and there was great reason to apprehend a
majority of the Legislature would have adopted his
views. It became necessary to convince the pro-
jectors themselves of the impracticability of their
scheme, and to counteract the impressions they had
made by a direct application to the Legislature.
Some of the merchants, to effect these purposes, set
on foot a subscription for a money bank, and called
upon me to subscribe. I was a little embarrassed
how to act, but upon the whole I concluded it best
to fall in with them, and endeavor to induce them to
put the business upon such a footing as might enable
you with advantage to combine your interests with
theirs; for since the thing had been taken up upon
the broad footing of the whole body of the mer-
chants, it appeared to me that it never would be
your interest to pursue a distinct project in opposi-
tion to theirs, but that you would prefer, so far as
you might choose to employ money in this way, to
become purchasers in the general bank. The ob-
ject, on this supposition, was to have the bank
founded on such principles as would give you a
proper weight in the direction. Unluckily for this
purpose I entered rather late into the measure. Pro-
posals had been agreed upon, in which, among other
things, it was settled that no stockholder, to what-
ever amount, should have more than seven votes,
which was the number to which a holder of ten shares
was to be entitled. At an after meeting of some of
the most influential characters, I engaged them so
398 Alexander Hamilton
far to depart from this ground as to allow a vote for
every five shares above ten.
The stockholders have since thought proper to
appoint me one of the directors.1 I shall hold it till
Wadsworth and you come out, and if you choose to
become partners in this bank I shall make a vacancy
for one of you. I inclose you the constitution and
the names of the president, directors, and cashier.
An application for a charter has been made to the
Legislature, with a petition against granting an ex-
clusive one to the land bank. The measures which
have been taken appear to have had their effect upon
the minds of the partisans of the land bank.
The affairs of the bank in Pennsylvania appear
to be in some confusion. They have stopped dis-
counts; but I have no apprehension that there is
any thing more in the matter than temporary em-
barrassment, from having a little overshot their
mark in their issues of paper, and from the opposition
which the attempt to establish a new bank had
produced.
I have had no tolerable offer for your land in
Connecticut, — forty shillings, and that currency, per
acre has been the highest, but I have written to Mr.
Campfield, requesting him to inform himself well of
the value of the land, and if he thinks it is not worth
more, to accept the offer. I am told he is a judicious
and honest man ; and I presume the land where it is
will never be worth any thing to you if it remains
unsold. Betsy joins me in best affections to Mrs. C,
and yourself.
1 This bank thus formed was the Bank of New York.
Private Correspondence 399
TO THOMAS FITZSIMMONS '
New York, March ax, 1784.
Dear Sir:
Permit me to introduce to your acquaintance and
attention Mr. Seton, Cashier of the Bank of New
York. He is just setting out for Philadelphia to
procure materials and information in the forms of
business. I recommend him to you, because I am
persuaded you will with pleasure facilitate his object.
Personally, I dare say you will be pleased with him.
He will tell you of our embarrassments and pro-
spects. I hope an incorporation of the two banks,
which is evidently the interest of both, has put an
end to differences in Philadelphia. Here a wild and
impracticable scheme of a land bank stands in our
way; the projectors of it persevering in spite of the
experience they have, that all the mercantile and
moneyed influence is against it.
TO GOUVERNEUR MORRIS
New York, March 21, 1784.
I duly received, my dear sir, your letter of the
27th of January, and I would have sooner told you
how much pleasure it gave me, if I had had time, but
legislative folly has afforded so plentiful a harvest
to us lawyers that we have scarcely a moment to
spare from the substantial business of reaping. To-
day being Sunday, I have resolved to give an hour
1 Thomas Fitzsimmons, an eminent merchant of Philadelphia, was
after a leading member of Congress and always a stanch supporter and
friend of Hamilton.
400 Alexander Hamilton
to friendship and to you. Good people would say
that I had much better be paying my devotions to
the great x
devotions I mean ; for with so lively an imagination
as yours it is necessary to be explicit, lest you should
be for making a different association that would not
suit me quite as well.
To say that I was amused with your letter was to
say what must have happened of course; a good
theme in good hands could not fail to be amusing.
The coalition you mention is not to be wondered at,
though in a political light it is whimsical enough;
but the meeting of extremes at the same point is a
common case. I expect in another year to see our
political antipodes in this city shaking hands, but
whenever it happens it will not affect me as it seems
to have done you in the instance you mention, be-
cause probably I shall not have the same reasons. —
To be serious:
The erection of a new bank in Philadelphia does
not appear to me an evil to the community. The
competition may indeed render the large profits of
the old bank less permanent, but they will always
remain considerable enough; and the competition
will cause business to be done on easier and better
terms in each, to the advancement of trade in gen-
eral. If I reason wrong, correct me. That a stock-
holder of the old bank should feel his interest
wounded, that those who have made their property in
it subservient in some measure to the support of the
1 There is a slice cut out of the body of the letter here.
Private Correspondence 4QI
Revolution should feel a degree of indignation at the
kind of rivalship which has started up, are both nat-
ural sensations ; but that large profits should produce
rivalship, that men in a matter of this kind should
employ their money where they expect the greatest
advantage and the cheapest market in purchasing 1
^* *j> *& ^^ *^ *^
second bank has been established, I think you will, on
reflection, agree with me that they ought to wish to
be interested in both the institutions, and that there-
fore it is the duty of those who have the laying out
of their money to purchase in the new bank, on the
principle I have hinted at as well as the circum-
stances of a lower price. The whole of this business,
my dear friend, is a mere mercantile speculation, and
I am sure when there has been time to cool down the
considerate proprietors of the old bank will blame
nobody for adventuring upon mere mercantile prin-
ciples. To you I need not say that it is chimerical
to expect any other will prevail.
Were I to advise upon this occasion, it would be
as soon as possible to bring about a marriage or,
perhaps what you will prefer, an intrigue between
the old bank and the new. Let the latter be the
wife or, still to pursue your propensity, the mistress
of the former. As a mistress (or, you 11 say a wife)
it is to be expected she will every now and then be
capricious and inconstant; but in the main it will
be the interest of both husband and wife that they
should live well together and manage their affairs with
good humor and concert. If they quarrel they will not
1 MS. cut.
vol. ix— a6.
4Q2 Alexander Hamilton
only expose themselves to the gibes of their neighbors,
but the more knowing part of these will endeavor to
keep them by the ears in order to make the favors
of each more cheap and more easily attainable.
I ought, in return, to give you an account of what
we are doing here, but I will, in the lump, tell you
that we are doing those things which we ought not
to do, and leaving undone those things which we
ought to do. Instead of wholesome regulations for
the improvement of our polity and commerce, we
are laboring to contrive methods to mortify and
punish Tories and to explain away treaties.
Let us both erect a temple to time, only regretting
that we shall not command a longer portion of it to
see what will be the event of the American drama.1
TO GOUVERNEUR MORRIS
New York, April 7, 1784.
Pardon me, my dear sir, for not sooner having
obeyed your orders with respect to the enclosed. I
part with it reluctantly ; for wit is so rare an article,
that when we get so much of it in so small a compass
we cannot easily consent to be dispossessed of it. I
am very happy to hear of the union of your two
banks, for you will believe me when I tell that on
more deliberate consideration I was led to view the
competition in a different light from that in which
it at first struck me. I had no doubt that it was
against the interests of the proprietors, but on a super-
1 Now first printed from the Hamilton papers in the State Depart-
ment.
Private Correspondence 4°3
ficial view I perceived benefits to the community , which
on a more close inspection I found were not real.
You will call our proceedings here strange doings.
If some folks were paid to counteract the prosperity
of the State, they could not take more effectual
measures than they do. But it is in vain to at-
tempt to kick against the pricks.
Discrimination bills, partial taxes, schemes to en-
gross public property in the hands of those who have
present power, to banish the real wealth of the State,
and to substitute paper bubbles, are the only dishes
that suit the public palate at this time.
Permit me to ask your opinion on a point of im-
portance to the New York Bank— the best mode of
receiving and paying out gold. I am aware of the
evils of that which has been practised upon in Phila-
delphia— weighing in quantities — but I cannot satisfy
myself about a substitute, unless there could be a
coinage.
Favor me with your sentiments on this subject as
soon as you can.
TO DE CHASTELLUX "
New York, June 14, 1784.
Monsieur Le Chevalier:
Colonel Clarkson,2 who will have the honor of
1 Francois Jean, Marquis de Chastellux, was one of the most dis-
tinguished of our French allies; he was born in 1734, and died in 1788.
He was something of a literary man, and left, among other works, an
entertaining account of his adventures in this country. He became
Marquis in the year 1784.
2 Colonel Matthew Clarkson, of New York, a distinguished officer of
the Revolution, born in 1759; died in 1825. He was aid-de-camp to
General Gates, and severely wounded at the battle of Stillwater.
404 Alexander Hamilton
delivering you this, being already known to you, I give
him this letter more for the sake of renewing to you
the assurances of my attachment and esteem, than
from a supposition that he will stand in need of any
new title to your attention. I will therefore only
say of him that his excellent qualities cannot be
known without interesting those to whom they are
known, and that from a personal and warm regard
for him, I should be happy, if any thing I could say,
could be an additional motive for your countenance
and civilities to him.
I speak of him in the light of a friend. As a mes-
senger of science, he cannot fail to acquire the
patronage of one of her favorite ministers. He com-
bines with the views of private satisfaction, which a
voyage to Europe cannot but afford, an undertaking
for the benefit of a seminary of learning, lately in-
stituted in this State.
Learning is the common concern of mankind;
and why may not poor republicans, who can do
little more than wish her well, send abroad to solicit
the favor of her patrons and friends? Her ambas-
sador will tell you his errand. I leave it to your
mistress to command and to the trustees of the in-
stitution to ask your permission in promoting his
mission.
Permit me only to add that if there is any thing in
this country by which I can contribute to your satis-
faction, nothing will make me happier at all times
than that your commands may enable me to give you
proofs of the respectful and affectionate attachment
with which, etc.
Private Correspondence 405
TO HIS BROTHER, JAMES HAMILTON — ST. THOMAS
New York, June 23, 1785.
My Dear Brother:
I have received your letter of the 31st of May
last, which and one other are the only letters I have
received from you in many years. You did not re-
ceive one which I wrote to you about six months ago.
The situation you describe yourself to be in gives me
much pain, and nothing will make me happier than,
as far as may be in my power, to contribute to your
relief. I will cheerfully pay your draft upon me
for fifty pounds sterling whenever it shall appear. I
wish it was in my power to desire you to enlarge the
sum; but, though my future prospects are of the
most flattering kind, my present engagements would
render it inconvenient to me to advance a larger
sum. My affection for you, however, will not permit
me to be inattentive to your welfare, and I hope
time will prove to you that I feel all the sentiments
of a brother. Let me only to request of you to exert
your industry for a year or two more where you are,
and at the end of that time I promise myself to be
able to invite you to a more comfortable settlement
in this country. But what has become of our dear
father? It is an age since I have heard from him, or
of him, though I have written him several letters.
Perhaps, alas, he is no more, and I shall not have the
pleasing opportunity of contributing to render the
close of his life more happy than the progress of it.
My heart bleeds at the recollection of his misfortunes
and embarrassments. Sometimes I flatter mvself his
it
brothers have extended their support to him, and
406 Alexander Hamilton
that he now enjoys tranquillity and ease. At other
times I fear he is suffering in indigence. Should he
be alive, inform him of my inquiries; beg him to
write to me, and tell him how ready I shall be to de-
vote myself and all I have to his accommodation and
happiness. I do not advise your coming to this
country at present, for the war has also put things
out of order here, and people in your business find a
subsistence difficult enough. My object will be, by
and by, to get you settled on a farm.1
TO ISRAEL WILKES a
November 8, 1785.
Sir:
The message which you sent me yesterday, and
your letter today, were conceived in terms to which
1 Reprinted from the Reminiscences of J as. A. Hamilton, p. 2.
2 This letter is given in the edition of 1850 as addressed to John
Wilkes, but as he was never in this country, the first sentence, "the
message which you sent me yesterday and your letter today," shows
that it could not have been written to John Wilkes, but must have been
addressed to some one in New York. The following letter, now first
printed from the Hamilton papers in the State Department, throws
light on the subject :
to .
Nbw York, June 18, 1784.
Sir:
I have been duly honored with your letter of the 30th of March,
and am much flattered by the confidence you have reposed in me. I
should with pleasure have undertaken to execute your wishes had I
been in a situation that left me at liberty to do it; but it has happened
that Mr. Wilkes, some time since, applied to me on the same subject ; and
though I was not absolutely retained by him, yet as I have been con-
sulted on the business, I should conceive it improper to act against
him. In this dilemma, as you were at a great distance, and he might
elude your pursuit before you could make a new choice of a person to
manage the affair for you, I thought it my duty to transfer the trust
to some person on the spot, to whose judgment and integrity your
Private Correspondence 4°7
I am little accustomed. Were I to consult my feel-
ings only upon the occasion, I should return an an-
swer very different from that which I have, in justice
to my own conduct, resolved upon. But in what-
interests might be safely committed. I have fixed upon Mr. Samuel
Jones l for this purpose, a gentleman as distinguished for his probity
as for his professional knowledge, and have accordingly substituted
him in my place.
He has had Mr. Wilkes arrested upon your demand, who, not being
able to obtain bail, is of course, in prison. This has been done in
pursuance of your intimation that Mr. Wilkes' friends are able to do
something for him; and it is to be hoped that, rather than suffer him
to be in jail, they will either satisfy or become bound for at least a
part of your demand. This seems to be your only resource; for he
has no property in this country, and has been of late in no way of
acquiring any.
He did not (as you had been informed) accompany Mrs. Hayley 2
to this country; but it is reported that she has lately arrived at
Boston.
I am requested by Mr. Jones to mention to you that it will be
necessary you should furnish him with the account of sales rendered
by Mr. Wilkes, and, at the same time, with the bills of exchange which
he accepted. He wishes to be possessed of these as evidence in case
of a controverted suit. You mention that the bills of exchange were
sent to New York, but you do not say to whom. On tracing the mat-
ter, we have reason to conclude they were sent to Mr. McAdam; but
as he is now in England, we cannot have recourse to him to obtain
them. Circumstanced as I am, I must now take leave of this business,
without acting hereafter on either side.
But as a just representation of facts is always most conducive to the
settlement of disputes, and may enable you the better to judge what
course it will be proper for you to pursue, I think it incumbent upon
me, from the confidence you have been pleased to repose in me, to
inform you that I have taken pains to ascertain the quality and con-
1 Afterwards Chief Justice of New York, called "the father of the
New York Bar," and a very eminent lawyer.
a Mary Wilkes, youngest sister of the famous agitator, married, first,
Samuel Stork, merchant, of London; second, George Hayley, alder-
man. After the death of Mr. Hayley she came to this country, and
remained for some time, chiefly in Boston, where she married her
third husband, Mr. Jeffreys, with whom she returned to London in
1803.
408 Alexander Hamilton
ever light we are to view each other hereafter, and
however harsh and indelicate I may think the method
you have taken to obtain an explanation to be, I
shall, for my own part, leave no room to suppose
dition of the wines of both cargoes on their arrival in this country; and
the result of my inquiries of gentlemen who could not be mistaken in
the matter, and on whose veracity I can depend, has been that the
wine of the second, as well as the first, cargo was in general either
damaged or of indifferent quality, and necessarily sold at very low
rates.
I am inclined to suspect that Mr. Wilkes' intention will be to en-
deavor to procure an act of insolvency in his favor at the next meeting
of the Legislature (continuing in the meantime in confinement), and
that he will in this expectation rather discourage his friends from
becoming sureties for him.
I think, with proper management on the part of those concerned for
you, it will be very difficult for him to succeed in this scheme; but
moderation in your behalf will be best calculated to frustrate the
experiment, and lay him under a necessity of calling in the aid of his
friends.
I persuade myself you will do justice to the motives of these intima-
tions, and, though I have it not in my power to serve you upon the
present occasion, will permit me to make you an offer of my best
services upon every other, and to assure you that I am, with much
consideration and esteem, etc.1
1 This letter has no address, but is evidently written to some one in
England who wished to retain Hamilton as counsel. The allusion to
Mrs. Hayley makes it clear that the Mr. Wilkes to whom the letter in
the text was addressed was of the agitator's family, while the letter
just given shows that it could not have been John Wilkes, as Mr. J. C.
Hamilton has it, because an eminent New York lawyer could not have
arrested and put in prison in New York a man who was never in this
country. It is plain, therefore, that the Mr. Wilkes intended was the
eldest brother of the agitator, Israel Wilkes, who came to New York
at quite an early age and, with the exception of occasional visits to
England, remained there until his death in his eighty-first year. It is
impossible now to unravel the details of the affair, and as it was purely
a matter of business the letters might have been omitted had not Mr.
J. C. Hamilton seen fit to print one of them with what must be a wrong
address. I have not been able to determine, or even guess at, Hamil-
ton's would-be client. It may be that he was the Mr. Macaulay
mentioned in the letter in the text, but that helps us but little. Mrs.
Private Correspondence 409
that I intentionally gave you any cause to com-
plain. I shall, therefore, explicitly declare, that
Macaulay, the historian, was in intimate relation with the Wilkes
family, and is constantly mentioned in the letters of John Wilkes and
his daughter, but her husband was not Mr. but Dr. Macaulay. The
most curious thing is that Mr. J. C Hamilton prints an answer from
"John Wilkes," written in reply to Hamilton's of the day before,
given above.
WILKES TO HAMILTON
Sir: November 9, 1785.
The moment I received yours, I perceived the precipitancy of my
own conduct, and was very sorry I had so far mistaken both our
characters as to act in the manner I have done. I natter myself that
the same candor which has dictated yours will be exerted towards
mine, and that you will only view it as the act of a man who con-
ceived himself injured. As you have never experienced the cruel
reverses of fortune, you can scarcely judge how the least insinuations
to their prejudice will affect those persons who have; or how much
more suspicious they are of the behavior of mankind towards them.
The morning I left the message for you I had been called upon by
one of the creditors of Mr. Heart, who thought it very strange no
dividend was made ; and he insinuated some party must be interested
in the delay. It is the first money transaction I have engaged in since
my release. I felt the insinuation as alluding to me, and with a force
which, perhaps, I should not. However, that moment I went to your
office.
The next morning, when I saw your note to Mr. Atkinson, and found
myself totally set aside in a business where I had, most undoubtedly,
been originally neglected, I felt myself very much agitated, and in that
frame of mind I wrote my last to you.
So much I thought it necessary to add in explanation.
I am convinced now I have been too hasty, and I am sorry for it.
It will put me on my guard in future, and, I make no doubt, prove
beneficial to me, provided it has not been the means of hurting me in
your estimation, which I am now more desirous than ever of obtaining.
I am, sir, etc. John Wilkes.1
1 I have shown that the Wilkes in question must have been one of
the family of the English agitator, and could not have been the
agitator himself, but could, and indeed must have been, his brother
Israel. Why Mr. J. C Hamilton should have printed the letter as from
John Wilkes cannot be determined. That the original should have
been signed " John Wilkes " seems most unlikely.
4io Alexander Hamilton
whatever inattention may have appeared towards
you, was solely owing to the continual hurry in
which my engagements, for a long time past, have
kept me; and that, so far from its having been occa-
sioned by any designed neglect, it was what, under
the circumstances, might have happened to my best
friend. Indeed, much of what you mention to have
been done by you, I am a stranger to. The frequent
callings, by yourself and by your servant, did not,
that I recollect, come to my knowledge. It is possi-
ble some of them might have been mentioned to me,
and, in the hurry of my mind, forgotten. Once, I
remember, I saw your servant just as I was going out
on some urgent business. I sent a verbal message,
promising that I would see you; which I intended
to do, as soon as I had made up my resolution on
the business of the interview. When I received your
note I was about sending you an answer in writing ;
but, upon inquiring for your servant, and finding
him gone, I omitted it, with an intention to see you
personally.
You say it is near six months since you first ap-
plied to me on the business in question. A great
part of the time I gave you all the answer I could
give you — to wit, that I had written to Mr. Macaulay,
and only waited his answer. About two months
since, I received it. I have been the greater part of
the time out of town on indispensable business. In
the intervals I have been occupied about objects of
immediate and absolute necessity, which could not
have been delayed without letting my business run
into utter confusion. Mr. Macaulay 's concerns have
Private Correspondence 411
been hanging upon my spirits. I have been prom-
ising myself, from day to day, to bring them to a
conclusion, but more pressing objects have unavoid-
ably postponed it. I thought the delay required
some apology to Mr. Macaulay, but I never dreamt
of having given occasion of offence to you.
I will not, however, deny, upon a review of what
has passed, that there have been, through hurry and
inadvertency on my part, appearances of neglect
towards you; but between gentlemen and men of
business, unfavorable conclusions ought not to be
drawn before explanations are asked. Allowances
ought to be made for the situations of parties; and
the omissions of men, deeply involved in business,
ought rather to be ascribed to that cause than to ill
intentions.
Had you, in the first instance, expressed to me
(in such a manner as respect for yourself and deli-
cacy to me dictated) your sense of these appearances,
I should have taken pains to satisfy you that nothing
improper towards you was intended by me. But to
make one of my clerks the instrument of communica-
tion, and the bearer to me of a harsh accusation, was
ill-judged and ungenteel. To take it for granted
that you had received an injury from me, without
first giving me an opportunity of an explanation, and
to couch your sense of it in terms so offensive as
some of those used in your letter, is an additional
instance of precipitation and rudeness. Inadver-
tencies susceptible of misapprehension, I may com-
mit; but I am incapable of intending to wound or
injure any man who has given me no cause for it;
4^2 Alexander Hamilton
and I am incapable of doing any thing, sir, of which
I need be ashamed. The intimation, on your part,
is unmerited and unwarrantable. After thus having
explained my own conduct to you, and given you
my ideas of yours, it will depend on yourself how far
I shall be indifferent, or not, to your future senti-
ments of my character. I shall only add, that to-
morrow you shall receive from me my determination
on the matter of business between us.
TO WASHINGTON
November 23, 1785.
Dear Sir:
Major Fairly is just setting out on a visit to you,
I believe, on some business relating to the Cincinnati.
The society of this State met some short time since,
and took into consideration the proposed alterations
in the original frame of the Institution; some were
strenuous for adhering to the old constitution, a few
adopting the new, and many for a middle line. This
disagreement of opinion and the consideration that
the different State societies pursuing different courses
— some adopting the alterations entire, others re-
jecting them in the same way, others adopting in
part and rejecting in part — might beget confusion
and defeat good purposes, induced a proposal which
was unanimously agreed to, that a committee should
be appointed to prepare and lay before the society a
circular-letter expressive of the sense of the society
on the different alterations proposed, and recom-
mending the giving powers to a general meeting of
Private Correspondence 4*3
the Cincinnati, to make such alterations as might
be thought advisable to obviate objections and pro-
mote the interests of the society. I believe there
will be no difficulty in agreeing to change the present
mode of continuing the society ; but it appears to be
the wish of our members that some other mode may
be defined and substituted, and that it might not be
left to the uncertainty of legislative provision. We
object, too, to putting the funds under legislative
direction. Indeed, it appears to us, the Legisla-
tures will not at present be inclined to give us any
sanction. I am of the committee, and I cannot
but flatter myself that when the object is better
digested and more fully explained it will meet your
approbation.
The poor Baron ■ is still soliciting Congress, and
has every prospect of indigence before him. He has
his imprudences, but, upon the whole, he has ren-
dered valuable services, and his merits and the repu-
tation of the country alike demand that he should
not be left to suffer want.
If there could be any mode by which your influ-
ence could be employed in his favor, by writing to
your friends in Congress, or otherwise, the Baron and
his friends would be under great obligations to you.
TO NATHANIEL HAZARD
gIR. April 24, 1786.
Your letter of the 21st was only delivered me this
morning. The good opinion of liberal men I hold in
1 Steuben.
414 Alexander Hamilton
too high estimation not to be flattered by that part
of your letter which relates to me personally. The
other part I have communicated to General Schuyler,
and he assures me he will see all his friends this
afternoon upon the subject ; so that I have no doubt,
as far as his influence extends, it will be employed
in favor of the success of the bill in the Assembly, as
it has already been in the Senate.
In taking this step, however, I would not be under-
stood to declare any opinion concerning the prin-
ciples of the bill, with which I am not sufficiently
acquainted to form a decided opinion. I have
merely made your letter the occasion of introducing
the subject to General Schuyler, whose sentiments
are as favorable to your wishes as you could desire.
I make this observation from that spirit of candor
which I hope will always direct my conduct. I am
aware that I have been represented as an enemy to
the wishes of what you call your corps. If by this
has been meant that I do not feel as much as any
man, not immediately interested, for the distresses of
those merchants who have been in a great measure
the victims of the Revolution, the supposition does
not do justice either to my head or my heart. But
if it means that I have always viewed the mode of
relieving them as a matter of peculiar delicacy and
difficulty, it is well founded.
I should have thought it unnecessary to enter into
this explanation, were it not that I am held up as a
candidate at the ensuing election; and I would not
wish that the step I have taken in respect to your
letter should be considered as implying more than it
Private Correspondence 4*5
does; for I would never wish to conciliate at the
expense of candor. On the other hand, I confide in
your liberality not to infer more than I intend from
the explanation I have given ; and hope you will be-
lieve me to be, with great cordiality and esteem, etc.
TO MESSRS. SEMPHILL & CO.
Gentlemen: New York' May 2°' I786'
On the recommendation of Mr. Nicholas Cruger,1
of this city, I take the liberty to commit to your care
a small matter in which I am interested. I am in-
formed that Mr. John Hallwood, a relation of mine,
who died some time since in St. Croix, has, by his
will, left me one-fourth part of his estate. The
amount, I imagine, is not very considerable, but,
whatever it may be, I shall be glad to have it
collected and remitted. Mr. Hallwood 's estate, I
believe, consisted entirely in his share in his grand-
father's estate, Mr. James Lytton,2 whose affairs
have been a long time in a dealing [sic] court, but
one would hope are now ready for a final settlement.
Dr. Hugh Knox can give you further information on
the subject.
1 Hamilton's early friend and employer.
2Mr. Hallwood's grandfather was Mr. James Lytton, as it here appears,
and Mr. Hallwood was a relative of Hamilton. In the appendix to my
Life of Hamilton (American Statesmen Series), p. 294, I have dis-
cussed, in connection with the question of his parentage, his relation-
ship to the Lyttons. This letter tends to show that, if the view there
suggested is probable, Hamilton's mother was a Miss Lytton, and not
Miss Faucette. This letter is valuable only on this account, for it
proves beyond a peradventure Hamilton's relationship to the Lyttons,
which is mentioned by Mr. John C Hamilton in the first and un-
finished Life, but which is omitted in the History of the Republic.
4*6 Alexander Hamilton
As I know money concerns in your island rarely
improve by delay, if things should not be in a train
to admit of an immediate settlement, I shall be ready,
to effect this to transfer my claim to any person who
may incline to the purchase at a discount of five and
twenty per cent.
This, however, I submit to your discretion, and
authorize you to do whatever you think for my in-
terest. Inclosed I send you a power of attorney,
which I presume you will find competent. Should
it be in my power to render you any services here, I
shall with pleasure obey your commands.
TO JOHN THOMAS, ESQ., SHERIFF OF WESTCHESTER
New York, June 22, 1786.
Sir:
I think it necessary to apprise you that in my
opinion you will not be safe in taking paper money
on executions, without the consent of the parties,
and in those which I have sent to you that consent I
believe cannot be obtained.
This is a matter, however, which I mention to you
in confidence, for your own safety. I would not wish
to have much said about it till you should be under
a necessity of explaining yourself, lest it should in-
jure the credit of the paper on its first appearance,
to which (whatever be my opinion of the measure
itself since it has been adopted) I would not wish to
be accessory.1
1 Now first printed from the Hamilton papers in the State Depart-
ment.
Private Correspondence 417
TO WASHINGTON
New York, July 3, 1787.
Dear Sir:
In my passage through the Jerseys, and since my
arrival here, I have taken particular pains to dis-
cover the public sentiment, and I am more and more
convinced that this is the critical opportunity for
establishing the prosperity of this country on a solid
foundation. I have conversed with men of informa-
tion, not only in this city, but from different parts of
the State, and they agree that there has been an
astonishing revolution for the better in the minds of
the people.
The prevailing apprehension among thinking men
is, that the Convention, from the fear of shocking
the popular opinion, will not go far enough. They
seem to be convinced that a strong, well-mounted
government will better suit the popular palate than
one of a different complexion. Men in office are in-
deed taking all possible pains to give an unfavorable
impression of the Convention, but the current seems
to be moving strongly the other way.
A plain but sensible man, in a conversation I had
with him yesterday, expressed himself nearly in
this manner : The people begin to be convinced that
"their excellent form of government," as they have
been used to call it, will not answer their purpose, and
that they must substitute something not very remote
from that which they have lately quitted.
These appearances, though they will not warrant
a conclusion that the people are yet ripe for such a
plan as I advocate, yet serve to prove that there is
VOL. IX.— 27.
4i 8 Alexander Hamilton
no reason to despair of their adopting one equally
energetic, if the Convention should think proper to
propose it. They serve to prove that we ought not
to allow too much weight to objections drawn from
the supposed repugnance of the people to an efficient
constitution. I confess I am more and more in-
clined to believe that former habits of thinking are
regaining their influence with more rapidity than is
generally imagined.
Not having compared ideas with you, sir, I cannot
judge how far our sentiments agree; but, as I per-
suade myself the genuineness of my representations
will receive credit with you, my anxiety for the event
of the deliberations of the Convention induces me to
make this communication of what appears to be the
tendency of the public mind.
I own to you, sir, that I am seriously and deeply
distressed at the aspect of the counsels which pre-
vailed when I left Philadelphia. I fear that we
shall let slip the golden opportunity of rescuing the
American empire from disunion, anarchy, and misery.
No motly or feeble measure can answer the end,
or will finally receive the public support. Decision
is true wisdom, and will be not less reputable to the
Convention than salutary to the community.
I shall of necessity remain here ten or twelve days.
If I have reason to believe that my attendance at
Philadelphia will not be mere waste of time, I shall,
after that period, rejoin the Convention.
Private Correspondence 4*9
to x
New York, , 1787.
Dear Sir:
Agreeably to what passed between us, I have had
an interview with Mr. Auldjo, and I flatter myself if
there is (as I doubt not there will be) as much mod-
eration on the part of Major Peirce as there appears
to be on that of Mr. Auldjo, that the affair between
them may yet be amicably terminated.
But Mr. Auldjo observes, I confess in my opinion
with propriety, that he ought to know with some
precision the matters which have given offence to
Major Peirce, before he can enter into explanations,
which he declares himself to be very ready to do with
coolness and candor the moment he shall be enabled
to do it by a specification of the subjects of com-
plaint. If a personal interview is for any reason
disagreeable to Major Peirce, I entreat you, my dear
sir, to obtain from him and to communicate to me
by letter the substance of what has occasioned his
dissatisfaction, with so much particularity only as
will put it in the power of Mr. Auldjo to give an ex-
plicit answer. Major Peirce will, I hope, have no
scruples about this, for as the door of explanation
has been opened by Mr. Auldjo, there is no punctilio
which stands in his way ; and I trust he will feel the
force of a sentiment which prudence and humanity
equally dictate, that extremities ought then only to
ensue when after a fair experiment accommodation
1 Addressed presumably to the second of Major Peirce in the affair
of honor which seems to have been impending between that gentleman
and Hamilton's friend Mr. Auldjo.
42o Alexander Hamilton
has been found impracticable. An attention to this
principle interests the characters of both the gentle-
men concerned, and with them our own, and from
every other consideration, as well as that of personal
friendship to the parties, I sincerely wish to give it
its full operation. I am convinced you are not less
anxious to effect this than myself, and I trust our
joint endeavors will not prove unsuccessful.
I cannot, however, conclude without making one
remark. Though Mr. Auldjo has expressed and still
entertains a desire of explanation, it would ill become
him to solicit it. Whatever therefore in my expres-
sions may seem to urge such an explanation with
the earnestness of entreaty, must be ascribed to my
own feelings and to that inclination which every man
of sensibility must feel — not to see extremities take
place if it be in his power to prevent them, or until
they become an absolutely necessary sacrifice to
public opinion.
TO MAJOR PEIRCE
1787.
Dear Sir:
As the enclosed contains details relating to your
private affairs, it is judged most delicate to put it
under cover to you. Permit me to use the privilege
of a friend to say, that what has appeared to you
offensive in the conduct of Mr. Auldjo, seems to have
been a very natural result of disappointments on his
side, to which your disappointments gave birth, in-
fluenced too, perhaps, in some degree by incidents
which may have been misrepresented or misunder-
Private Correspondence 421
stood. His explanations speak a language which I
sincerely think may put an end to your controversy —
I as sincerely hope this may be the case. I speak
with the more freedom, because in a difference be-
tween men I esteem — a difference evidently foreign
from any real enmity between them, — I can never
consent to take up the character of a second in a
duel till I have in vain tried that of the mediator.
Be content with enough, for more ought not to be
expected.1
TO AULDJO
New York, July 26, 1787.
Sir:
I have delivered the paper you committed to me,
as it stood altered, to Major Peirce, from whose con-
duct I am to conclude the affair between you is at
an end. He informs me that he is shortly to set out
on a jaunt up the North River.
As you intimate a wish to have my sentiments in
writing on the transaction, I shall with pleasure de-
clare that the steps you have taken in consequence
of Mr. Peirce 's challenge have been altogether in
conformity to my opinion of what would be prudent,
proper, and honorable on your part. They seem to
have satisfied Mr. Pierce's scruples arising from what
he apprehended in some particulars to have been
your conduct to him, and I presume we are to hear
nothing further of the matter.
1 Now first printed from the Hamilton papers in the State Depart-
ment.
422 Alexander Hamilton
TO RUFUS KING x
New York, August 20, 1787.
Dear Sir:
Since my arrival here I have written to my col-
leagues, informing them if either of them would
come down, I would accompany him to Philadelphia;
so much for the sake of propriety and public opinion.
In the meantime, if any material alteration should
happen to be made in the plan now before the Con-
vention, I will be obliged to you for a communica-
tion of it. I will also be obliged to you to let me
know when your conclusion is at hand, for I would
choose to be present at that time.
TO COLONEL JEREMIAH WADSWORTH 2
August 20, 1787.
My Dear Sir:
The inclosed is said to be the copy of a letter
circulating in your State. The history of its
appearance among us is that it was sent by one
Wkitmore, of Stratford, formerly in the Paymaster-
General's office, to one James Reynolds of this city.
I am at a loss clearly to understand its object, and
have some suspicion that it has been fabricated to
excite jealousy against the Convention, with a view
at an opposition to their recommendations. At all
1 The eminent statesman of Massachusetts and New York. He was
always one of Hamilton's most intimate friends.
2 Colonel Jeremiah Wadsworth, of Connecticut, Commissary-General
in the Revolutionary army, delegate to the Continental, and member
of the National, Congress. By his reply to this letter it appears that
the person whom Hamilton calls Whitmore was named Wetmore.
Private Correspondence 423
events, I wish, if possible, to trace its source, and
send it to you for that purpose.
Whitmore must of course say where he got it, and
by pursuing the information, we may at last come
at the author. Let me know the political connec-
tions of this man and the complexion of the people
most active in the circulation of the letter. Be so
good as to attend to this inquiry somewhat particu-
larly, as I have different reasons of some moment for
setting it on foot.
TO RUFUS KING
New York, August 28, 1787.
Dear Sir:
I wrote you some days since to request you to in-
form me when there was a prospect of your finishing,
as I intended to be with you for certain reasons
before the conclusion.
It is whispered here that some late changes in
your scheme have taken place which give it a higher
tone. Is this the case? I leave town to-day to
attend a circuit in a neighboring county, from which
I shall return the last of the week, and shall be glad
to find a line from you explanatory of the period of
the probable termination of your business.
TO WASHINGTON
October, 1787.
Dear Sir:
You probably saw some time since some animad-
versions on certain expressions of Governor Clinton
424 Alexander Hamilton
respecting the Convention. You may have seen a
piece signed "A Republican," attempting to bring
the fact into question, and endeavoring to contro-
vert the conclusions drawn from it, if true. My an-
swer you will find in the inclosed. I trouble you
with it merely from that anxiety which is natural to
every man, to have his veracity at least stand in a
fair light. The matter seems to be given up by the
Governor, and the fact, with the inferences from it,
stand against him in full force and operate as they
ought to do.
It is, however, of some importance to the party to
diminish whatever credit or influence I may possess,
and to effect this they stick at nothing. Among
many contemptible artifices practised by them they
have had recourse to an insinuation that I palmed
myself upon you, and that you dismissed me from
your family.1 This I confess hurts my feelings, and
if it obtains credit, will require a contradiction.
You, sir, will undoubtedly recollect the manner in
which I came into your family and went out of it,
and know how destitute of foundation such insinua-
tions are. My confidence in your justice will not
permit me to doubt your readiness to put the matter
in its true light in your answer to this letter. It
cannot be my wish to give any complexion to the
affair which might excite the least scruple to you,
1 In his reply to this letter, Washington says: "But as you say it is
insinuated by some of your political adversaries and may obtain public
credit, 'that you palmed yourself upon me and was dismissed from my
family,' and call upon me to do you justice by a recital of the facts,
I do therefore explicitly declare that both charges are entirely un-
founded."
Private Correspondence 425
but I confess it would mortify me to be under the
imputation either of having obtruded myself into
the family of a General or having been turned out
of it.
The new Constitution is as popular in this city as
it is possible for any thing to be, and the prospect
thus far is favorable to it throughout the State.
But there is no saying what turn things may take
when the full flood of official influence is let loose
against it. This is to be expected; for, though the
Governor has not publicly declared himself, his par-
ticular connections and confidential friends are loud
against it.
Mrs. Hamilton joins in respectful compliments to
Mrs. Washington.
TO WASHINGTON
October 30, 1787.
I am much obliged to your Excellency for the ex-
plicit manner in which you contradict the insinua-
tions mentioned in my last letter. The only use I
shall make of your answer will be to put it into the
hands of a few friends.
The constitution proposed has in this State warm
friends and warm enemies. The first impressions
everywhere are in its favor, but the artillery of its
opponents makes some impression. The event can-
not yet be foreseen. The inclosed is the first number
of a series of papers to be written in its defence.1
I send you also, at the request of the Baron de
Steuben, a printed pamphlet containing the grounds
1 This allusion is to The Federalist
426 Alexander Hamilton
of an application lately made to Congress. He tells
me there is some reference to you, the object of
which he does not himself seem clearly to under-
stand, but imagines it may be in your power to be
of service to him.
There are public considerations that induce me to
be somewhat anxious for his success. He is fortified
with materials which, in Europe, could not fail to
establish the belief of the contract he alleges. The
documents of service he possesses are of a nature
to convey an exalted idea of them. The compen-
sations he has received, though considerable, if
compared with those which have been received by
American officers, will, according to European ideas,
be very scanty in application to a stranger who is
acknowledged to have rendered essential services.
Our reputation abroad is not at present too high.
To dismiss an old soldier empty and hungry, to seek
the bounty of those on whom he has no claims, and
to complain of unkind returns and violated engage-
ments, will certainly not tend to raise it. I confess,
too, there is something in my feelings which would
incline me in this case to go further than might be
strictly necessary, rather than drive a man, at the
Baron's time of life, who has been a faithful servant,
to extremities. And this is unavoidable if he does
not succeed in his present attempt. What he asks
would, all calculations made, terminate in this: an
allowance of his five hundred and eighty guineas a
year. He only wishes a recognition of the contract.
He knows that until affairs mend no money can be
produced. I do not know how far it may be in your
Private Correspondence 427
power to do him any good, but I shall be mistaken
if the considerations I have mentioned do not appear
to your Excellency to have some weight.
TO JAMES MADISON, JR.
New York, April 3, 1788.
I have been very delinquent, my dear sir, in not
thanking you for your letter from Philadelphia. The
remarks you made on a certain subject are impor-
tant, and will be attended to.
There is truly much embarrassment in the case.
I think, however, the principles we have talked of
are not only just, but will apply to the other depart-
ments. Nor will the consequences appear so dis-
agreeable as they may seem at first sight, when we
attend to the true import of the rule established.
The States retain all the authorities they were be-
fore possessed of, not alienated in the three modes
pointed out; but this does not include cases which
are the creatures of the new Constitution. For in-
stance, the crime of treason against the United
States immediately is a crime known only to the new
Constitution. There of course was no power in the
State constitutions to pardon that crime. There
will therefore be none under the new, etc. This is
something likely, it seems to me, to afford the best
solution of the difficulty. I send you the Federalist
from the beginning to the conclusion of the com-
mentary on the Executive Branch. If our sus-
picions of the author be right, he must be too much
engaged to make a rapid progress in what remains.
428 Alexander Hamilton
The Court of Chancery and a Circuit Court are now
sitting.
We are told that your election has succeeded, with
which we all felicitate ourselves. I will thank you
for an account of the result generally. In this State
our prospects are much as you left them. A moot
point which side will prevail. Our friends to the
northward are active.
TO JAMES MADISON, JR.
May 4, 1788.
My Dear Sir:
I believe I am in your debt a letter or two, which
is owing to my occupation in relation to the elections,
etc.
These are now over in this State, but the result is
not known. All depends upon Albany, where both
sides claim the victory. Our doubts will not be re-
moved till the latter end of the month. I hope your
expectations of Virginia have not diminished.
Respecting the first volume of Publius I have ex-
ecuted your commands. The books have been sent
addressed to the care of Governor Randolph. The
second, we are informed, will be out in the course of a
week, and an equal number shall be forwarded. In-
closed is a letter, committed to my care by Mr. Van-
derkemp, which I forward with pleasure.
to gouverneur morris
My Dear Sir: New York> Ma? *9> x788-
I acknowledge my delinquency in not thanking
you before for your obliging letter from Richmond.
Private Correspondence 429
But the truth is that I have been so overwhelmed in
avocations of one kind or another, that I have scarcely
had a moment to spare to a friend. You I trust will
be the less disposed to be inexorable, as I hope you
will believe there is no one for whom I have more
inclination than yourself — I mean of the male kind.
Your account of the situation of Virginia was in-
teresting, and the present appearances as represented
here justify your conjectures. It does not however
appear that the adoption of the Constitution can be
considered as out of doubt in that State. Its con-
duct upon the occasion will certainly be of critical
importance.
In this State, as far as we can judge, the elections
have gone wrong. The event, however, will not
certainly be known till the end of the month. Vio-
lence rather than moderation is to be looked for from
the opposite party. Obstinacy seems the prevailing
trait in the character of its leader. The language is
that if all the other States adopt, this is to persist in
refusing the Constitution. It is reduced to a cer-
tainty that Clinton has in several conversations de-
clared the Union unnecessary — though I have the
information through channels which do not permit
a public use to be made of it.
We have, notwithstanding this unfavorable com-
plexion of things, two sources of hope: one, the
chance of a ratification by nine States before we
decide, and the influence of this upon the firmness of
the followers; the other, the probability of a change
of sentiment in the people, auspicious to the Con-
stitution.
43° Alexander Hamilton
The current has been for some time running to-
ward it ; though the whole flood of official influence,
accelerated by a torrent of falsehood, early gave, the
public opinion so violent a direction in a wrong chan-
nel that it was not possible suddenly to alter its
course. This is a mighty stiff simile ; but you know
what I mean ; and after having started it, I did not
choose to give up the chase.
The members of the Convention in this city, by a
majority of nine or ten to one, will be: John Jay,
Robert R. Livingston, Richard Morris, John Sloss
Hobart, James Duane, Isaac Roosevelt, Richard
Harrison, Nicholas Low, Alexander Hamilton.
TO JAMES MADISON, JR.
New York, May 19, 1788.
Some days since I wrote to you, my dear sir, in-
closing a letter from a Mr. Vanderkemp, etc.
I then mentioned to you that the question of a
majority for or against the Constitution would de-
pend upon the County of Albany. By the later ac-
counts from that quarter, I fear much that the issue
there has been against us.
As Clinton is truly the leader of his party, and
is inflexibly obstinate, I count little on overcoming
opposition by reason. Our only chances will be the
previous ratification by nine States, which may
shake the firmness of his followers; and a change
in the sentiments of the people, which have, for
some time, been travelling towards the Constitution,
though the first impressions, made by every species
Private Correspondence 43 l
of influence and artifice, were too strong to be eradi-
cated in time to give a decisive turn to the elections.
We shall leave nothing undone to cultivate a favor-
able disposition in the citizens at large.
The language of the Anti-Federalists is, that if all
the other States adopt, New York ought still to hold
out. I have the most direct intelligence, but in a
manner which forbids a public use being made of it,
that Clinton has, in several conversations, declared
his opinion of the inutility of the Union. It is an
unhappy reflection that the friends to it should, by
quarrelling for straws among themselves, promote
the designs of its adversaries. We think here that
the situation of your State is critical. Let me know
what you now think of it. I believe you meet nearly
at the time we do. It will be of vast importance
that an exact communication should be kept up be-
tween us at that period; and the moment any de-
cisive question is taken, if favorable, I request you
to dispatch an express to me, with pointed orders to
make all possible diligence, by changing horses, etc.
All expense shall be thankfully and liberally paid.
I executed your commands respecting the first volume
of the Federalist. I sent forty of the common copies
and twelve of the finer ones, addressed to the care
of Governor Randolph. The printer announces the
second volume in a day or two, when an equal num-
ber of the two kinds shall also be forwarded. He
informs that the Judicial Department — Trial by
Jury — Bill of Rights, etc., is discussed in some addi-
tional papers which have not yet appeared in the
Gazettes.
432 Alexander Hamilton
TO JOHN SULLIVAN, ESQ., PRESIDENT OF THE STATE OF
NEW HAMPSHIRE
New York, June 6, 1788.
Dear Sir:
You will no doubt have understood that the Anti-
federal party has prevailed in this State by a large
majority. It is therefore of the utmost importance
that all external circumstances should be made use
of to influence their conduct. This will suggest to
you the great advantage of a speedy decision in your
State, if you can be sure of the question, and a
prompt communication of the event to us. With
this view, permit me to request that the instant you
have taken a decisive vote in favor of the Constitu-
tion, you send an express to me at Poughkeepsie.
Let him take the shortest route to that place, change
horses on the road, and use all possible diligence. I
shall with pleasure defray all expenses, and give a
liberal reward to the person. As I suspect an effort
will be made to precipitate us, all possible safe dis-
patch on your part, as well to obtain a decision as to
communicate the intelligence of it, will be desirable.1
TO JAMES MADISON, JR.
My DEAR SlR: New York, June 8, 1788.
In my last, I think, I informed you that the elec-
tions had turned out, beyond expectation, favorable
to the Anti-federal party. They have a majority of
two thirds in the Convention, and, according to the
1 This interesting letter, now first printed, I owe to the kindness of
Mr. George Clarendon Hodges, of Boston, the possessor of the original.
Private Correspondence 433
best estimate I can form, of about four sevenths in
the community. The views of the leaders in this
city are pretty well ascertained to be turned towards
a long adjournment — say, till next spring or summer.
Their incautious ones observe that this will give an
opportunity to the State to see how the government
works, and to act according to circumstances.
My reasonings on the fact are to this effect: The
leaders of the party hostile to the Constitution are
equally hostile to the Union. They are, however,
afraid to reject the Constitution at once, because
that step would bring matters to a crisis between
this State and the States which had adopted the
Constitution, and between the parties in the State.
A separation of the Southern District from the other
parts of the State, it is perceived, would become the
object of the Federalists and of the neighboring
States. They therefore resolve upon a long ad-
journment as the safest and most artful course to
effect their final purpose. They suppose that when
the government gets into operation, it will be obliged
to take some steps in respect to revenue, etc., which
will furnish topics of declamation to its enemies in
the several States, and will strengthen the minorities.
If any considerable discontent should show itself,
they will stand ready to head the opposition. If, on
the contrary, the thing should go on smoothly, and
the sentiments of our own people should change,
they can elect to come into the Union. They, at all
events, take the chances of time and the chapter of
accidents.
How far their friends in the country will go with
VOL IX.— 28.
434 Alexander Hamilton
them, I am not able to say, but, as they have always
been found very obsequious, we have little reason to
calculate upon an uncompliant temper in the present
instance. For my own part, the more I can pene-
trate the views of the Anti-federal party in this
State, the more I dread the consequences of the non-
adoption of the Constitution by any of the other
States — the more I fear an eventual disunion and
civil war. God grant that Virginia may accede.
The example will have a vast influence on our poli-
tics. New Hampshire, all accounts give us to ex-
pect, will be an assenting State.
The number of the volumes of the Federalist which
you desired have been forwarded, as well the second
as the first, to the care of Governor Randolph. It
was impossible to correct a certain error.
In a former letter, I requested you to communicate
to me, by express, the event of any decisive question
in favor of the Constitution, authorizing changes of
horses, etc., with an assurance to the person that he
will be liberally paid for his diligence.
TO JAMES MADISON, JR.
Dear Sir: Poughkeepsie, June, 1788.
Your letter of the 20th came to hand two days
since. I regret that your prospects are not yet re-
duced to greater certainty. There is more and more
reason to believe that our conduct will be influenced
by yours.
Our discussions have not yet travelled beyond the
power of taxation. To-day we shall probably quit
Private Correspondence 435
this ground to pass to another. Our arguments con-
found, but do not convince. Some of the leaders,
however, appear to be convinced by circumstances,
and to be desirous of a retreat. This does not apply-
to the chief, who wishes to establish Clintonism on
the basis of Anti-federalism.
TO JAMES MADISON, JR.
POUGHKEEPSIE, June 21, 1788.
Yesterday, my dear sir, the Convention made a
House. That day and this have been spent in
preliminary arrangements. To-morrow we go into a
committee of the whole on the Constitution. There
is every appearance that a full discussion will take
place, which will keep us together at least a fort-
night. It is not easy to conjecture what will be the
result. Our adversaries greatly outnumber us. The
leaders gave indications of a pretty desperate dis-
position in private conversations previous to the
meeting; but I imagine the minor partisans have
their scruples, and an air of moderation is now as-
sumed. So far the thing is not despaired of. A
happy issue with you must have a considerable in-
fluence upon us. I have time to add nothing more
than the assurance of my sincere attachment.
TO JAMES MADISON, JR.
My Dear Sir: Poughkeepsie, June ax, 1788.
I thank you for your letter of the 9th instant, and
am glad to learn that you think the chance is in your
436 Alexander Hamilton
favor. I hope no disagreeable change may appear.
Yet, I own I fear something from your indisposition.
Our debate here began on the clause respecting the
proportion of representation, etc., which has taken
up two days. To-morrow, I imagine, we shall talk
about the power over elections. The only good in-
formation I can give you is, that we shall be some
time together, and take the chance of events.
The object of the party at present is undoubtedly
conditional amendments. What effect events may
have cannot precisely be foreseen. I believe the
adoption by New Hampshire is certain.
TO JAMES MADISON, JR.
Poughkeepsie, Friday morning, June 27, 1788.
A day or two ago General Schuyler, at my request,
sent forward to you an express with an account of
the adoption of the Constitution by New Hamp-
shire. We eagerly wait for further intelligence from
you, as our chance of success depends upon you.
There are some slight symptoms of relaxation in
some of the leaders, which authorizes a gleam of
hope, if you do well, but certainly I think not
otherwise.
TO JAMES MADISON, JR.
My Dear Sir: July 8, 1788.
I felicitate you sincerely on the event in Virginia,
but my satisfaction will be allayed if I discover too
much facility in the business of amendment-making.
I fear the system will be wounded in some of its vital
Private Correspondence 437
parts by too general a concurrence in some very in-
judicious recommendations. I allude more particu-
larly to the power of taxation. The more I consider
requisition in any shape, the more I am out of humor
with it. We yesterday passed through the Constitu-
tion. To-day some definitive proposition is to be
brought forward, but what, we are at a loss to judge.
We have good reason to believe that our opponents
are not agreed, and this affords some ground of hope.
Different things are thought of — conditions precedent,
or previous amendments; conditions subsequent, or
the proposition of amendments, upon condition that
if they are not adopted within a limited time, the
State shall be at liberty to withdraw from the Union ;
and, lastly, recommendatory amendments. In either
case, constructive declarations will be carried as far as
possible. We will go as far as we can in the latter
without invalidating the act, and will concur in
rational recommendations. The rest for our oppo-
nents. We are informed there has been a disturb-
ance in the city of Albany, on the fourth of July,
which has occasioned bloodshed. The Anti-federal-
ists were the aggressors, and the Federalists the vic-
tors. Thus stand our accounts at present. We
trust, however, the matter has passed over, and
tranquillity been restored.
TO JAMES MADISON, JR.
Poughkeepsie, Saturday, July, 1788.
I thank you, my dear sir, for yours by the post.
Yesterday I communicated to Duer our situation,
438 Alexander Hamilton
which I presume he will have communicated to you.
It remains exactly the same. No further question
having been taken, I fear the footing I mentioned to
Duer is the best upon which it can be placed, but
every thing possible will yet be attempted to bring
the party from that stand to an unqualified ratifica-
tion. Let me know your idea upon the possibility
of our being received on that plan. You will under-
stand that the only qualification will be the reserva-
tion of a right to recede in case our amendments have
not been decided upon in one of the modes pointed
out by the Constitution, within a certain number of
years, perhaps five or seven. If this can, in the first
instance, be admitted as a ratification, I do not fear
any further consequences. Congress will, I presume,
recommend certain amendments to render the struc-
ture of the government more secure. This will satisfy
the more considerate and honest opposers of the Con-
stitution, and with the aid of them will break up the
party.
TO NATHANIEL CHIPMAN '
SIR! Poughkeepsie, July 22, 1788.
Your brother delivered me your favor, which I re-
ceived with pleasure, as the basis of a correspondence
that may be productive of public good.
1 Nathaniel Chipman, of Vermont, was born in Connecticut, in 1752,
and died in 1843. He was a soldier of the Revolution and a distin-
guished lawyer and statesman. He was Chief -Justice of Vermont and
Senator from that State. The letter to which this is a reply related
to the question of the New York grants. In 1789 Mr. Chipman was
appointed to settle the differences with New York, and two years later
was one of the Commissioners to arrange for the admission of Vermont
into the Union.
Private Correspondence 439
The accession of Vermont to the Confederacy is,
doubtless, an object of great importance to the
whole ; and it appears to me that this is the favorable
moment for effecting it upon the best terms for all
concerned. Besides mere general reasons, there are
circumstances of the moment which will forward a
proper arrangement. One of the first subjects of
deliberation with the new Congress will be the
independence of Kentucky, for which the Southern
States will be anxious. The Northern will be glad
to send a counterpoise in Vermont. These mutual
interests and inclinations will facilitate a proper
result.
I see nothing that can stand in your way but the
interfering claims under the grants of New York.
As to taxation, the natural operation of the new
system will place you exactly where you might wish
to be. The public debt, as far as it can prudently be
provided for, will be by the Western lands and the
appropriation of some general fund. There will be
no distribution of it to particular parts of the com-
munity. The fund will be sought for in indirect
taxation; as for a number of years, and except in
time of war, direct taxes would be an impolitic
measure. Hence, as you can have no objection to
your proportion of contribution as consumers, you
can fear nothing from the article of taxation.
I readily conceive that it will hardly be practicable
to you to come into the Union, unless you are se-
cured from claims under New York grants. Upon
the whole, therefore, I think it will be expedient for
you, as early as possible, to ratify the Constitution,
440 Alexander Hamilton
" upon condition that Congress shall provide for the
extinguishment of all existing claims to land under
grants of the State of New York, which may inter-
fere with claims under the grants of the State of
Vermont." You will do well to conform your
boundary to that heretofore marked out by Con-
gress, otherwise insuperable difficulties would be
likely to arise with this State.
I should think it altogether unadvisable to annex
any other conditions to your ratification, for there is
scarcely any of the amendments proposed that will
not have a party opposed to it, and there are several
that will meet with a very strong opposition; and
it would, therefore, be highly inexpedient for you
to embarrass your main object by any collateral
difficulties.
As I write in Convention, I have it not in my
power to enlarge. You will perceive my general
ideas on the subject. I will only add that it will be
wise to lay as little impediment as possible in the
way of your reception into the Union.
TO JAMES MADISON, JR.
Dear Sir: poughkeepsie, July 22, 1788.
I wrote to you by the last post, since which nothing
material has turned up here. We are debating on
amendments without having decided what is to be
done with them. There is so great a diversity in the
views of our opponents that it is impossible to pre-
dict any thing. Upon the whole, however, our fears
diminish.
Private Correspondence 441
TO WASHINGTON
New York, August 13, 1788.
Sir:
Capt. Cochran of the British navy has requested
my aid in recovering a family watch worn by his
brother, who fell at Yorktown, and now in the pos-
session of Gen. Morgan. In compliance with his re-
quest I have written the letter herewith to Gen.
Morgan, which I take the liberty to convey through
you, in hope that if you see no impropriety in it,
you would add your influence to the endeavor to
gratify Capt. Cochran. It is one of those things in
which the affections are apt to be interested, beyond
the value of the object, and in which one naturally
feels an inclination to oblige.
I have delivered to Mr. Madison, to be forwarded
to you, a set of the papers under the signature of
Publius,1 neatly enough bound to be honored with a
place in your library. I presume you have under-
stood that the writers of these papers are chiefly Mr.
Madison and myself, with some aid from Mr. Jay.
I take it for granted, sir, you have concluded to
comply with what will no doubt be the general call
of your country in relation to the new government.
You will permit me to say that it is indispensable
you should lend yourself to its first operations. It
is of little purpose to have introduced a system, if the
weightiest influence is not given to its firm estab-
lishment in the outset.
1 These papers constituted The Federalist.
442 Alexander Hamilton
TO SAMUEL BROOME x
New York, August 16, 1788.
Dear Sir:
I have this moment received your letter of the
thirteenth instant, and am sorry that the rules of
propriety in respect to my situation as a member of
Congress will not permit my acting in the capacity
you wish.
My situation for some time past has prevented my
acknowledging one or two of your favors, which have
been duly handed to me. I recollect that one of
them contains an inquiry concerning your son, to
which you will naturally desire an answer. My
public avocations for some time past have put it out
of my power to ascertain the progress he has made —
though I expect when I shall be enough disengaged
to examine, to find it a good one; it cannot fail to
be so if his diligence has been equal to his capacity.
I shall shortly write you further on the subject.
TO GOVERNOR WM. LIVINGSTON
New York, August 29, 1788.
Dear Sir:
We are informed here that there is some prob-
ability that your Legislature will instruct your dele-
gates to vote for Philadelphia as the place of the
meeting of the first Congress under the new govern-
ment. I presume this information can hardly be
well founded, as upon my calculations there is not a
1 A New York merchant, and one of the well-known family of that
name.
Private Correspondence 443
State in the Union so much interested in having the
temporary residence at New York as New Jersey.
As between Philadelphia and New York, I am
mistaken if a greater proportion of your State will
not be benefited by having the seat of government
at the latter than the former place.
If at the latter, too, its exposed and eccentric
position will necessitate the early establishment of a
permanent seat, and in passing south it is highly
probable the government would light upon the Dela-
ware in New Jersey. The Northern States do not wish
to increase Pennsylvania by an accession of all the
wealth and population of the federal city. Penn-
sylvania herself, when not seduced by immediate
possession, will be glad to concur in a situation on
the Jersey side of the Delaware. Here are at once
a majority of the States; but place the government
once down in Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania will, of
course, hold fast; the State of Delaware will do the
same.
All the States south, looking forward to the time
when the balance of population will enable them to
carry the government further south (say to the Po-
tomac), and being accommodated in the meantime
as well as they wish, will concur in no change. The
government, from the delay, will take root in Phila-
delphia, and Jersey will lose all prospect of the
federal city within her limits.
These appear to me calculations so obvious that I
cannot persuade myself New Jersey will so much
oversee her interest as to fall, in the present instance,
into the snares of Pennsylvania.
444 Alexander Hamilton
TO WASHINGTON
tn o . New York, September, 1788.
Your Excellency's friendly and obliging letter of
the 28th ultimo came safely to hand. I thank you
for your assurance of seconding my application to
General Morgan. The truth of that affair is that he
purchased the watch for a trifle of a British soldier,
who plundered Major Cochran at the moment of his
fall at Yorktown.
I should be deeply pained, my dear sir, if your
scruples in regard to a certain station should be
matured into a resolution to decline it, though I am
neither surprised at their existence, nor can I but
agree in opinion that the caution you observe in
deferring an ultimate determination is prudent. I
have, however, reflected maturely on the subject,
and have come to a conclusion (in which I feel no
hesitation), that every public and personal considera-
tion will demand from you an acquiescence in what
will certainly be the unanimous wish of your country.
The absolute retreat which you meditated at the
close of the late war was natural and proper. Had
the government produced by the Revolution gone on
in a tolerable train, it would have been most advisable
to have persisted in that retreat. But I am clearly
of opinion that the crisis which brought you again
into public view left you no alternative but to com-
ply, and I am equally clear in the opinion that you
are by that act pledged to take a part in the execu-
tion of the government. I am not less convinced
that the impression of this necessity of your filling the
Private Correspondence 445
station in question is so universal that you run no
risk of any uncandid imputation by submitting to it.
But even if this were not the case, a regard to your
own reputation, as well as to the public good, calls
upon you in the strongest manner to run that risk.
It cannot be considered as a compliment to say
that on your acceptance of the office of President
the success of the new government in its commence-
ment may materially depend. Your agency and in-
fluence will be not less important in preserving it
from the future attacks of its enemies than they have
been in recommending it in the first instance to the
adoption of the people. Independent of all consider-
ations drawn from this source, the point of light in
which you stand at home and abroad will make an
infinite difference in the respectability with which
the government will begin its operations in the al-
ternative of your being or not being at the head of it.
I forbear to urge considerations which might have a
more personal application. What I have said will
suffice for the inferences I mean to draw.
First. In a matter so essential to the well-being
of society as the prosperity of a newly-instituted
government, a citizen of so much consequence as
yourself to its success has no option but to lend his
services if called for. Permit me to say it would
be inglorious in such a situation not to hazard the
glory, however great, which he might have previously
acquired.
Secondly. Your signature to the proposed system
pledges your judgment for its being such a one as,
upon the whole, was worthy of the public approbation.
446 Alexander Hamilton
If it should miscarry (as men commonly decide
from success, or the want of it), the blame will,
in all probability, be laid on the system itself, and
the framers of it will have to encounter the disrepute
of having brought about a revolution in government,
without substituting any thing that was worthy of
the effort. They pulled down one Utopia, it will be
said, to build up another. This view of the subject
if I mistake not, my dear sir, will suggest to your
mind greater hazard to that fame, which must be
and ought to be dear to you, in refusing your future
aid to the system than in affording it. I will only
add that, in my estimate of the matter, that aid is
indispensable.
I have taken the liberty to express these senti-
ments, and to lay before you my view of the subject.
I doubt not the considerations mentioned have fully
occurred to you, and I trust they will finally produce
in your mind the same result which exists in mine.
I flatter myself the frankness with which I have de-
livered myself will not be displeasing to you. It has
been prompted by motives which you would not dis-
approve. The letter inclosed in yours was imme-
diately forwarded.
TO THEODORE SEDGWICK x
New York, October 9, 1788.
I thank you, my dear sir, for your obliging con-
gratulations on the event towards effecting which
1 Theodore Sedgwick, of Massachusetts, afterwards member of Con-
gress, Speaker of the House, and a judge of the Supreme Court of his
native State. He was a staunch Federalist and an ardent friend of
Hamilton.
Private Correspondence 447
your aid as a joint laborer was so essential. I hope
experience may show that, while it promotes the in-
terest of this place, it will not be incompatible with
public good. We are making efforts to prepare
handsome accommodations for the session of the
new Congress.
On the subject of Vice-President, my ideas have
concurred with yours, and I believe Mr. Adams will
have the votes of this State. He will certainly, I
think, be preferred to the other gentleman. Yet
certainly is perhaps too strong a word. I can con-
ceive that the other, who is supposed to be a more
pliable man, may command Anti-federal influence.
The only hesitation in my mind with regard to
Mr. Adams has arisen within a day or two from a
suggestion by a particular gentleman that he is un-
friendly in his sentiments to General Washington.
Richard H. Lee, who will probably, as rumor now
runs, come from Virginia, is also in this style. The
Lees and Adamses have been in the habit of uniting,
and hence may spring up a cabal very embarrassing
to the Executive, and of course to the administration
of the government. Consider this — sound the real-
ity of it, and let me hear from you.
What think you of Lincoln or Knox? This is a
flying thought.
TO NATHANIEL CHIPMAN
1788.
Sir:
Your favor of the 6th of September has been duly
handed to me, and I receive great pleasure from the
448 Alexander Hamilton
hopes you appear to entertain of a favorable turn of
affairs in Vermont in regard to the new government.
It is certainly an object of mutual importance to
yourselves, and to the Union, and well deserves
the best endeavors of every discerning and good
man.
I observe with satisfaction your opinion that Ver-
mont will not make a point of introducing amend-
ments. I mean as a condition of her accession.
That ground would be the most hazardous which she
could venture upon, as it is very probable that such
amendments as might be popular with you would be
deemed inadmissible by the friends of the system,
who will doubtless be the most influential persons
in the national councils ; and who would rather sub-
mit to the inconvenience of your being out of the
Union, till circumstances should alter, than consent
to any thing that might impair the energy of the
government. The article of taxation is, above all,
the most delicate thing to meddle with; for as
plenary power in that respect must ever be con-
sidered as the vital principle of government, no
abridgment or constitutional suspension of that
power can ever, upon mature consideration, be coun-
tenanced by the intelligent friends of an effective
national government. You must, as I remarked in
my former letter, rely upon the natural course of
things, which I am satisfied will exempt you in ordi-
nary times from direct taxation, on account of the
difficulty of exercising it in so extensive a country,
so peculiarly situated, with advantage to the revenue
or satisfaction to the people. Though this difficulty
Private Correspondence 449
will be gradually diminished from various causes, a
considerable time must first elapse; and, in the in-
terim, you will have nothing to apprehend on this
score.
As far as indirect taxation is concerned, it will be
impossible to exempt you from sharing in the bur-
then, nor can it be desired by your citizens. I re-
peat these ideas to impress you the more strongly
with my sense of the danger of touching this chord,
and of the impolicy of perplexing the main object
with any such collateral experiments, while I am
glad to perceive that you do not think your people
will be tenacious on the point.
It will be useless for you to have any view in your
act to the present Congress. They can of course do
nothing in the matter. All you will have to do will
be to pass an act of accession to the new Constitu-
tion, on the conditions on which you mean to rely.
It will then be for the new government, when met,
to declare whether you can be received on your own
terms or not.
I am sorry to find that the affair of boundary is
likely to create some embarrassment. Men's minds,
everywhere out of your State, are made up upon and
reconciled to that which has been delineated by Con-
gress. Any departure from it must beget new dis-
cussions, in which all the passions will have their
usual scope, and may occasion greater impediments
than the real importance of the thing would justify.
If, however, the further claims you state cannot be
gotten over with you, I would still wish to see the ex-
periment made, though with this clog, because I have
VOL. IX. — 29.
450 Alexander Hamilton
it very much at heart that you should become a mem-
ber of the Confederacy. It is, however, not to be
inferred that the same disposition will actuate every-
body. In this State, the pride of certain individuals
has too long triumphed over the public interest ; and
in several of the Southern States a jealousy of North-
ern influence will prevent any great zeal for increas-
ing in the national councils the number of Northern
votes.
I mention these circumstances (though I dare say
they will have occurred to you), to show you the
necessity of moderation and caution on your part,
and the error of any sanguine calculation upon a dis-
position to receive you at any rate. A supposition
of this nature might lead to fatal mistakes.
In the event of an extension of your boundary
beyond the Congressional line, would it be imprac-
ticable for you to have commissioners appointed to
adjust any differences which might arise? I pre-
sume the principal object with you in the extension
of your boundary would be to cover some private
interests. This might be matter of negotiation.
There is one thing which I think it proper to men-
tion to you, about which I have some doubt — that
is, whether a legislative accession would be deemed
valid. It is the policy of the system to lay its
foundations in the immediate consent of the people.
You will best judge how far it is safe or practicable
to have recourse to a convention. Whatever you
do, no time ought to be lost. The present moment
is undoubtedly critically favorable. Let it by all
means be improved.
Private Correspondence 45 l
TO THEODORE SEDGWICK
New York, November o, 1788.
My Dear Sir:
Your last letter but one met me at Albany attend-
ing court, from whence I am but just returned.
Yours of the 2d inst. is this moment handed me.
I am very sorry for the schism you hint at among
the Federalists, but I have so much confidence in the
good management of the fast friends of the Constitu-
tion, that I hope no ill consequences will ensue from
that disagreement. It will, however, be worthy of
great care to avoid suffering a difference of opinion
on collateral points, to produce any serious division
between those who have hitherto drawn together on
the great national question.
Permit me to add that I do not think you should
allow any line to be run between those who wish to
trust alterations to future experience, and those who
are desirous of them at the present juncture. The
rage for amendments is in my opinion rather to
be parried by address than encountered with open
force. And I shall therefore be loth to learn that
your parties have been arranged professedly upon
the distinction I have mentioned. The mode in
which amendments may best be made, and twenty
other matters, may serve as pretexts for avoiding
the evil and securing the good.
On the question between Mr. H.1 and Mr. A.,2
Mr. King will probably have informed you that I
1 John Hancock.
2 John Adams. The question was which of these two should be
supported for the Vice-Presidency.
45 2 Alexander Hamilton
have, upon the whole, concluded that the latter
ought to be supported. My measures will be taken
accordingly. I had but one scruple, but after ma-
ture consideration, I have relinquished it. Mr. A.,
to a sound understanding, has always appeared to
me to add an ardent love for the public good, and,
as his further knowledge of the world seems to have
corrected those jealousies which he is represented to
have once been influenced by, I trust nothing of the
kind suggested in my former letter will disturb the
harmony of the administration. Let me continue
to hear from you, and believe me to be, with very
great esteem and regard, etc.
TO WASHINGTON
DEAR SlR: November 18, 1788.
Your last two letters have duly come to hand, and
the Count de Moustier has delivered me the watch
you committed to his charge. Your obliging atten-
tion to this matter claims my particular acknow-
ledgments. I will make no apology for asking you
to take the additional trouble of forwarding the en-
closed to the General. I take the liberty of passing
it through you, that you may, by perusing the con-
tents, know the situation of the business.
The demand of fifty guineas is to me quite un-
expected. I am sorry to add that there is too good
evidence that it cost a mere trifle to the General.
This, however, I mention in confidence. Nor shall
I give you any further trouble on the subject. What-
ever may be proper will be done.
Private Correspondence 453
Mrs. Hamilton requests her affectionate remem-
brances to Mrs. Washington, and joins me in the best
wishes for you both.
P. S. — Your last letter, on a certain subject, I
have received. I feel a conviction that you will
finally see your acceptance to be indispensable. It
is no compliment to say that no other man can
sufficiently unite the public opinion or can give the
requisite weight to the office in the commencement
of the government. These considerations appear to
me of themselves decisive. I am not sure that your
refusal would not throw every thing into confusion.
I am sure that it would have the worst effect imagin-
able. Indeed, as I hinted in a former letter, I think
circumstances leave no option.
TO JAMES MADISON, JR.
New York, November 23, 1788.
I thank you, my dear sir, for yours of the 20th.
The only part of it which surprises me is what you
mention respecting Clinton. I cannot, however, be-
lieve that the plan will succeed. Nor, indeed, do I
think that Clinton would be disposed to exchange
his present appointment for that office, or risk his
popularity by holding both. At the same time the
attempt merits attention, and ought not to be
neglected as chimerical or impracticable.
In Massachusetts the Electors will, I understand,
be appointed by the Legislature, and will be all
Federal, and 't is probable will be, for the most part,
454 Alexander Hamilton
in favor of Adams. It is said the same thing will
happen in New Hampshire, and, I have reason to
believe, it will be the case in Connecticut. In this
State it is difficult to form any certain calculation.
A large majority of the Assembly was doubtless of
an Anti-federal complexion, but the schism in the
party, which has been occasioned by the falling off
of some of its leaders in the Convention, leaves me
not without hope that, if matters are well managed,
we may procure a majority for some pretty equal
compromise. In the Senate we have the superiority
by one. In New Jersey there seems to be no ques-
tion but that the complexion of the Electors will be
Federal, and I suppose, if thought expedient, they
may be united in favor of Adams. Pennsylvania
you can best judge of. From Delaware, Maryland,
and South Carolina, I presume, we may count with
tolerable assurance on Federal men; and I should
imagine, if pains are taken, the danger of an Anti-
federal Vice-President might itself be rendered the
instrument of Union. At any rate, their weight
will not be thrown into the scale of Clinton, and I
do not see from what quarter numbers can be mar-
shalled in his favor equal to those who will advocate
Adams, supposing even a division in the Federal
votes.
On the whole I have concluded to support Adams,
though I am not without apprehensions on the score
we have conversed about. My principal reasons are
these: First, he is a declared partisan of deferring
to future experience the expediency of amendments
in the system, and (although I do not altogether
Private Correspondence 455
adopt this sentiment) it is much nearer my own than
certain other doctrines. Secondly, he is certainly a
character of importance in the Eastern States ; if he
is not Vice-President, one of two worse things will be
likely to happen. Either he must be nominated to
some important office, for which he is less proper, or
will become a malcontent, and give additional weight
to the opposition to the government. As to Knox,
I cannot persuade myself that he will incline to the
appointment. He must sacrifice emolument by it,
which must be of necessity a primary object with
him.
If it should be thought expedient to endeavor to
unite on a particular character, there is a danger of a
different kind to which we must not be inattentive —
the possibility of rendering it doubtful who is ap-
pointed President. You know the Constitution has
not provided the means of distinguishing in certain
cases, and it would be disagreeable to have a man
treading close upon the heels of the person we wish
as President. May not the malignity of the opposi-
tion be, in some instances, exhibited even against
him? Of all this we shall best judge when we know
who are our Electors ; and we must, in our different
circles, take our measures accordingly.
I could console myself for what you mention re-
specting yourself, from a desire to see you in one
of the executive departments, did I not perceive the
representation will be defective in characters of a cer-
tain description. Wilson is evidently out of the ques-
tion. King tells me he does not believe he will be
elected into either House. Mr. Gouverneur Morris
45 6 Alexander Hamilton
set out to-day for France, by way of Philadelphia.
If you are not in one of the branches, the government
may sincerely feel the want of men who unite to zeal
all the requisite qualifications for parrying the machi-
nations of its enemies. Might I advise, it would be,
that you bent your course to Virginia.
TO THEODORE SEDGWICK
New York, January 29, 1789.
My Dear Sir:
I thank you for your two letters of the 4th and 7th
instant which arrived here during my absence at
Albany, from which place I have but recently re-
turned. I believe you may be perfectly tranquil on
the subject of Mr. Adams' election. It seems to be
certain that all the Middle States will vote for him
to Delaware inclusively, and probably Maryland.
In the South there are no candidates thought of but
Rutledge and Clinton. The latter will have the
votes of Virginia, and it is possible some in South
Carolina. Maryland will certainly not vote for
Clinton, and New York, from our Legislature having
by their contentions let slip the day, will not vote at
all. For the last circumstance I am not sorry, as
the most we could hope would be to balance accounts
and do no harm. The Anti-federalists incline to an
appointment notwithstanding, but I discourage it
with the Federalists. Under these circumstances I
see not how any person can come near Mr. Adams —
that is, taking it for granted that he will unite the
votes in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. I ex-
Private Correspondence 457
pect that the federal votes in Virginia, if any, will be
in favor of Adams.
You will probably have heard that our Legislature
has passed a bill for electing representatives. The
Houses continue to disagree about senators, and I
fear a compromise will be impracticable. I do not,
however, entirely lose hope. In this situation you
will see we have much to apprehend respecting the
seat of government. The Pennsylvanians are en-
deavoring to bring their forces early in the field — I
hope our friends in the North will not be behind-
hand. On many accounts, indeed, it appears to be
important that there be an appearance of zeal and
punctuality in coming forward to set the government
in motion.
I shall learn with definite pleasure that you are a
representative. As to me, this will not be the case—
I believe, from my own disinclination of the thing.
We shall, however, I flatter myself, have a couple of
Federalists.
TO RUFUS KING
Albany, July 15, 1789.
My Dear Sir:
I received your letter by the last post but one. I
immediately set about circulating an idea that it
would be injurious to the city to have Duane elected,
as the probability was some very unfit character
would be his successor. My object was to have this
sentiment communicated to our members. But a
stop was put to my measures by a letter received
458 Alexander Hamilton
from Burr, announcing that at a general meeting of
the Federalists of both Houses, Schuyler and Duane
had been determined upon in a manner that pre-
cluded future attempts.
I find, however, by a letter from General Schuyler,
received this day, that L'Hommedieu and Morris
may spoil all. Troup tells me that L'Hommedieu
is opposed to you. He made our friend Benson be-
lieve that he would even relinquish himself for you.
What does all this mean?
Certain matters here, about which we have so
often talked, remain in statu quo.1
1 For this letter, now first printed, I am indebted to the kindness
of Dr. Charles King, the possessor of the King papers. It is a very-
interesting letter, because it relates to the struggle over the election of
United States Senators from New York, which kept New York without
representation in the Senate during the first session of Congress, and
which by its results had such an important influence on the party
politics of the time. Hamilton desired Schuyler and Rufus King to
be Senators. The Livingstons, who led and represented an important
part of the Federalists, cheerfully conceded Schuyler, but wished the
other to be a member of their faction. There was no question as to
King's ability and distinction as a statesman, but he had just come to
New York from Massachusetts, and was a comparative stranger. The
wish of the Livingstons was perfectly right and reasonable, and every
consideration of party wisdom urged the importance of gratifying them.
Whether they would have been satisfied with Duane is not clear. Both
L'Hommedieu and Gouverneur Morris were at one time in the field.
Ezra L'Hommedieu was an able politician, and the originator of the
measure for the State University. Hamilton however declined to
yield. A protracted struggle followed, and Schuyler and King were
chosen. At the expiration of Schuyler's term of two years, Burr was
elected in his stead, the Livingstons were hopelessly and finally alien-
ated, the State became doubtful, and was finally lost to the Federal-
ists. It was one of the instances in which Hamilton's bold, imperious
temper, which made him so strong as a statesman and administrator,
led him into a fatal error as a politician. The Robert Troup referred
to was an adroit politician and great friend of Hamilton. I have one
of his letters written at this time, which exhibits the details of the
contest of which I have given an outline.
Private Correspondence 459
TO OLIVER WOLCOTT
New York, September 13, 1789.
Sir:
It is with pleasure I am able to inform you that
you have been appointed Auditor in the Depart-
ment of the Treasury. The salary of this office is
fifteen hundred dollars. Your friends having ex-
pressed a doubt of your acceptance, I cannot forbear
saying that I shall be happy to find the doubt has
been ill-founded, as from the character I have re-
ceived of you I am persuaded you will be an acquisi-
tion to the department. I need scarcely add that
your presence here as soon as possible is essential to
the progress of business.1
TO LAFAYETTE
New York, October 6, 1789.
My Dear Marquis:
I have seen, with a mixture of pleasure and appre-
hension, the progress of the events which have lately
taken place in your country. As a friend to man-
kind and to liberty, I rejoice in the efforts which you
are making to establish it, while I fear much for the
final success of the attempts, for the fate of those I
esteem who are engaged in it, and for the danger, in
case of success, of innovations greater than will con-
sist with the real felicity of your nation. If your
affairs still go well when this reaches you, you will
1 This letter is reprinted from Gibbs' Administrations of Washington
and Adams, i., 2. Oliver Wolcott of Connecticut accepted the office
of Auditor here offered him, and succeeded Hamilton as Secretary of
the Treasury.
460 Alexander Hamilton
ask why this foreboding of ill, when all the appear-
ances have been so much in your favor. I will tell
you. I dread disagreements among those who are
now united (which will be likely to be improved by
the adverse party) about the nature of your consti-
tution; I dread the vehement character of your
people, whom I fear you may find it more easy to
bring on, than to keep within proper bounds after
you have put them in motion; I dread the inter-
ested refractoriness of your nobles, who cannot be
gratified, and who may be unwilling to submit to
the requisite sacrifices. And I dread the reveries of
your philosophic politicians, who appear in the mo-
ment to have great influence, and who, being mere
speculatists, may aim at more refinement than suits
either with human nature or the composition of your
nation.
These, my dear Marquis, are my apprehensions.
My wishes for your personal success and that of the
cause of liberty are incessant. Be virtuous amidst
the seductions of ambition, and you can hardly in
any event be unhappy. You are combined with a
great and good man; you will anticipate the name
of Neckar. I trust you and he will never cease to
harmonize.
You will, I presume, have heard before this gets
to hand, that I have been appointed to the head of
the finances of this country. This event, I am sure,
will give you pleasure. In undertaking the task I
hazard much, but I thought it an occasion that
called upon me to hazard. I have no doubt that the
reasonable expectation of the public may be satis-
Private Correspondence 461
fied, if I am properly supported by the Legislature,
and in this respect I stand at present on the most
encouraging footing.
The debt due to France will be among the first
objects of my attention. Hitherto it has been from
necessity neglected. The session of Congress is now
over. It has been exhausted in the organization of
the government and in a few laws of immediate
urgency respecting navigation and commercial im-
posts. The subject of the debt, foreign and domestic,
has been referred to the next session, which will
commence the first Monday in January, with an in-
struction to me to prepare and report a plan compre-
hending an adequate provision for the support
of the public credit. There were many good reasons
for a temporary adjournment.
From this sketch you will perceive that I am not
in a situation to address any thing officially to your
administration; but I venture to say to you, as my
friend, that if the installments of the principal of the
debt could be suspended for a few years, it would be
a valuable accommodation to the United States. In
this suggestion, I contemplate a speedy payment of
the arrears of interest now due, and effectual pro-
vision for the punctual payment of future interest
as it arises. Could an arrangement of this sort meet
the approbation of your government, it would be
best on every account that the offer should come un-
solicited as a fresh mark of good- will.
I wrote you last by Mr. De Warville. I presume
you received my letter. As it touched upon some
delicate topics I should be glad to know its fate.
462 Alexander Hamilton
P. S. — The latest accounts from France have
abated some of my apprehensions. The abdica-
tions of privileges patronized by your nobility in the
States-General are truly noble, and bespeak a patri-
otic and magnanimous policy which promises good
both to them and their country.
TO JAMES MADISON, JR.
October 12, 1789.
I thank you, my dear sir, for the line you were so
obliging as to leave for me, and the loan of the book
accompanying it, in which I have not made suffi-
cient progress to judge of its merit. I don't know
how it was, but I took it for granted that you had
left town earlier than I did ; else I should have found
an opportunity, after your adjournment, to converse
with you on the subjects committed to me by the
House of Representatives. It is certainly important
that a plan as complete and as unexceptionable as
possible should be matured by the next meeting of
Congress; and for this purpose it could not but be
useful that there should be a comparison and con-
centration of ideas, of those whose duty leads them
to a contemplation of the subject. As I lost the op-
portunity of a personal communication, may I ask
of your friendship, to put to paper and send me your
thoughts on such objects as may have occurred to
you, for an addition to our revenue, and also as to
any modifications of the public debt, which could be
made consistent with good faith — the interest of the
public and of the creditors.
Private Correspondence 463
In my opinion, in considering plans for the in-
crease of our revenue, the difficulty lies not so much
in the want of objects as in prejudice, which may
be feared with regard to almost every object. The
question is very much, What further taxes will be
least unpopular? x
TO WASHINGTON
New York, October 20, 1789.
Sir:
Agreeably to your desire I sit down to commit a
few lines to the post.
Nothing worth particular mention has occurred
since your departure, except a report brought by
Mr. Keane from South Carolina, that Mr. McGillivray,
the Indian chief, has, after a short conference, left
our commissioners, declaring that what they sug-
gested was only a repetition of the old story, and in-
admissible, or something to that effect. It is added
that the Lower Creeks appeared, notwithstanding,
willing to go into a treaty, but the Upper ones de-
clined it. General Knox, who has particularly con-
versed with Mr. Keane, will doubtless give you a
more accurate statement of what he brings. It
seems, however, that he has his intelligence at
second- or third-hand.
P. S. — I have just seen a letter from a private gen-
tleman of considerable intelligence now in North
Carolina, who gives an ill picture of the prospect
there, respecting the adoption of the Constitution.
1 Reprinted from the History of the Republic, iv., 60.
464 Alexander Hamilton
TO TIMOTHY PICKERING
Sir: Treasury Department, Nov. 19, 1789.
In the estimate laid before Congress at their last
sessions, I included as an anticipation of the late
Superintendent of Finance the amount of a draft
issued by him in your favor on the late Receiver of
Taxes for the State of New York, for fifty thousand
dollars, no part of which appears to have been paid.
The circumstances attending this anticipation not
being sufficiently known by the Legislative, pre-
vented (as I presume) a provision being made for it.
It will be therefore necessary for you to inform me
particularly of the nature and circumstances at-
tending this anticipation, and particularly whether
there are any points respecting the claims under it
which give the parties a right to expect payment for
them in specie, whilst so many debts in your depart-
ment appear to have been discharged by certificates.
I wish likewise to know whether any or what part
of these claims may have been settled by the differ-
ent State commissioners, and what mode can be
adopted for ascertaining them should the Legislature
think proper to make a provision for it.1
TO COL. R. H. HARRISON a
My Dear Friend: New York, Nov. 27, 1789.
After having labored with you in the common
cause of America during the late war, and having
1 Now first printed from the Pickering papers in the possession of
the Massachusetts Historical Society.
2 Col. Robert Hanson Harrison, of Maryland, one of Washington's
aides-de-camp, familiarly known as the "Old Secretary."
Private Correspondence 465
learned your value, judge of the pleasure I feel in
the prospect of a reunion of efforts in this same
cause, for I consider the business of America's happi-
ness as yet to be done.
In proportion to that sentiment has been my dis-
appointment at learning that you had declined a
seat on the bench of the United States. Cannot
your determination, my dear friend, be reconsidered ?
One of your objections, I think, will be removed;
I mean that which relates to the nature of the estab-
lishment. Many concur in opinion that its present
form is inconvenient, if not impracticable. Should
an alteration take place, your other objection will
also be removed ; for you can then be nearly as much
at home as you are now.
If it is possible, my dear Harrison, give yourself
to us. We want men like you. They are rare at all
times. Adieu.
TO HENRY LEE "
New York, December i, 1789.
My Dear Friend:
I have received your letter of the 16th inst. I am
sure you are sincere when you say that you would
not subject me to an impropriety; nor do I know
that there would be any in my answering your
queries. But you remember the saying with regard
to Caesar's wife. I think the spirit of it applicable
to every man concerned in the administration of the
1 Henry Lee, of Virginia, one of the most dashing soldiers of the
Revolution, and best known by his soubriquet of "Light-Horse
Harry."
VOL. IX.— 30.
466 Alexander Hamilton
finance of a country. With respect to the conduct of
such men, sttspicion is ever eagle-eyed. And the
most innocent things are apt to be misinterpreted.
Be assured of the affection and friendship of, etc.
TO WILLIAM DUER
1790.
While I truly regret, my dear friend, that the neces-
sity of your situation compels you to relinquish a
station " in which public and personal considerations
combine to induce me to wish your continuance, I
cannot but be sensible of the force of the motives by
which you are determined. And. I interest myself
in your happiness too sincerely not to acquiesce in
whatever may redound to your advantage. I con-
fess, too, that upon reflection I cannot help thinking
you have decided rightly.
I count with confidence on your future friendship,
as you may on mine.
An engagement at the President's will not let me
meet you at dinner, but I shall be happy to see you
in the evening. Adieu. God bless you, and give
you the success for which you will always have my
warmest wishes.
1 William Duer was Secretary of the old Treasury Board, and
served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury with Hamilton until
1790. This letter is dated 1789 in the edition of 1850, but as it refers
to Duer's retirement from office, could not have been written until the
beginning of the following year.
Private Correspondence 467
TO iEDANUS BURKE 1
SlR: New York, April i, 1790.
I have been informed that in the House of Repre-
sentatives yesterday, you made use of some very
harsh expressions in relation to me.
As I cannot but ascribe so unprovoked an attack
to misapprehension or misrepresentation, I have
concluded to send you an extract from the eulogium
pronounced by me on Gen. Greene, of the part to
which alone your animadversions could relate.
It is in these words:
" From the heights of Monmouth I might lead you
to the plains of Springfield, there to behold the
veteran Knyphaussen, at the head of a veteran army,
baffled and almost beaten by a general without an
army, aided — or rather embarrassed — by small fugi-
tive bodies of volunteer militia, the mimicry of
soldiership ."
From this you will perceive that the epithets to
which you have taken exception are neither applica-
ble to the militia of South Carolina in particular, nor
to militia in general, but merely to " small fugitive
bodies of volunteer militia."
Having thus, sir, stated the matter in its true
light, it remains for you to judge what conduct, in
consequence of the explanation, will be proper on
your part.2
1 Member of Congress from South Carolina from 1 789-1 791. He
was a distinguished lawyer, a judge, and, at the end of his life, Chancel-
lor of his State. There is no speech by Mr. Burke reported in the
Annals of Congress for March 31, 1790.
2 Now first printed from the Hamilton papers in the State Depart-
ment.
468 Alexander Hamilton
TO TIMOTHY PICKERING
New York, May 13, 1790.
Dear Sir:
The offer of your service as successor to Mr. Duer
reached me in due time.
I can with truth assure you that you were one of
a very small number who held a competition in my
judgment, and that had personal considerations
alone influenced me, I could with difficulty have
preferred another. Reasons of a peculiar nature,
however, have determined my choice towards Mr.
Tench Coxe, who to great industry and very good
talents adds an extensive theoretical and practical
knowledge of trade.
Allow me to say that, knowing as I now do your
views to public life, I shall, from conviction of your
worth, take pleasure in promoting them — and I hope
an opportunity will not be long wanting.1
TO WINN
gj£« Treasury Department, Sept. 18, 1790.
Mr. Justin Foote has delivered at this office a com-
mission from the President of the United States,
vesting you with the office of Surveyor of the Port
of Winton in North Carolina. This gentleman in-
formed me that he was not charged with any letter
of resignation from you, but stated the substance of
your verbal communication to him at the time.
1 Now first printed from the Pickering papers in the possession of the
Massachusetts Historical Society. Soon after this Col. Pickering was
made Postmaster- General.
Private Correspondence 469
Passing over the obligation of every good citizen
to deport himself with due respect to the Chief
Magistrate, and especially of those to whom he and
the Senate may have previously given indications of
confidence, which I am persuaded you would not
intentionally deviate from, I beg leave to observe
that questions may be raised whether the return of
a commission is all that is requisite from gentlemen
who decline an appointment to a public trust. Under
these circumstances, I find myself constrained to
request that you will make known to the President,
in a regular way, your intentions as to your late
appointment.
TO WASHINGTON
Sir; New York, September 21, 1790.
Doctor Craigie has communicated to me a letter
from Mr. Daniel Parker to him, dated London, the
12th of July, which mentions that he had just seen
Mr. De Miranda, who had recently conversed with
the Marquis del Campo, from whom he had learnt
that the Court of Spain had acceded to our right of
navigating the Mississippi.
Col. Smith has also read to me a passage out of
another letter of the 6th of July, which mentions
that orders had been sent to the Viceroy of Mexico
and the Governor of New Orleans not to interrupt
the passage of vessels of the United States through
that river.
It is probable that other communications will have
ascertained to you whether there be any and what
47° Alexander Hamilton
foundation for this intelligence; but I have thought
it advisable, notwithstanding, to impart it to you.
The reports from Europe favor more and more the
idea of peace. They are, however, not conclusive,
and not entirely correspondent.
Captain Watson, of the ship New York, who left
London the 28th of July, and Torbay the 16th or
17th of August, informs that the evening preceding
her departure from Torbay he was informed by
different officers of the fleet that peace between
Britain and Spain had taken place, and had been
notified by Mr. Pitt in a letter to the Lord Mayor of
London, of which an account had arrived that even-
ing. He had, however, seen no papers concerning
the account, and the press of seamen had continued
down to the same evening.
On the other hand, Captain Hunter, of the ship
George, who left St. Andero the 8th of August, affirms
that vigorous preparations for war were still going
on at that port.
TO WASHINGTON
Sir; New York, September 29, 1790.
I have been duly honored with your two letters of
the 1 8th and 20th of September.
My opinion on a certain subject has been for-
warded, and I hope will ere this have come to hand.
Inclosed you will be pleased to receive a list of
such characters as, from the documents furnished by
Mr. Lear, from my inquiries, and from the intima-
tions contained in your letter of the 20th, appear to
Private Correspondence 47 l
stand, upon the whole, fairest for the command of
the revenue boats, except for the stations of North
Carolina and Georgia concerning which there is no
satisfactory information.
Captain Montgomery is said to have, on some
accounts, greater pretensions to respectability than
Captain Roach (though both are represented to be
men of merit), and something like claim to preference
from situation.
Mr. Gross is submitted on the recommendation of
Captain Barney, who mentions favorably both him
and a Mr. Daniel Porter, naming Gross first, but
without expressing a preference of either.
The Vice-President put into my hand a day or two
ago the inclosed letters concerning Captain Lyde,
but as Williams, who is recommended by Governor
Hancock, is also warmly recommended by General
Lincoln, the evidence in his favor may be deemed
to preponderate.
The manifest expediency of the previous nomi-
nation or appointment of the persons who are to
command the boats to oversee the building and
equipping of them will suspend the further execu-
tion of the business till your pleasure as to persons
shall be signified.
The subaltern officers can be appointed at greater
leisure, for which purpose I am collecting informa-
tion, as I am also doing in respect to commanders
for the two boats destined for North Carolina and
Georgia; but I presume the others need not be de-
layed on this account.
P. S. — The British packet is just arrived. The
472 Alexander Hamilton
rumor is, that the declarations in the inclosed paper
were regarded as the prelude of peace ; but that the
matter was not considered as finished, and, accord-
ingly, the press of seamen had continued with as
much vivacity as before. In the letter from the
Minister to the Lord Mayor, these declarations
seemed to be regarded in the above-mentioned light.
The letter says, the negotiators were about to pro-
ceed to the discussion of the other matters in dispute
with a view to a definite arrangement.
TO WASHINGTON
Sir; New York, October 17, 1790.
I had the honor of receiving your letter of the
10th inst. by the last post. It is certainly very pos-
sible, that motives different from the one avowed
may have produced a certain communication; and
in matters of such a nature it is not only allowable,
but the dictate of prudence, to receive suggestions
with peculiar caution.
A British packet arrived yesterday. The accounts
she brings are all of a warlike aspect. I have ex-
tracted from an English paper the inclosed decree
of the National Assembly of France; which, though
of a qualified tenor, looks pretty directly towards the
eventual supporting of Spain. The English papers
hold it up as a decisive indication of a disposition to
do so. And it is said, in some of the letters which
have been received, that positive orders have been
sent to Lord Howe to fight if he can find an oppor-
tunity. The papers announce a second fleet of
Private Correspondence 473
fifteen sail of the line ready to rendezvous at Ports-
mouth, to be under the command of Admiral Hood.
Their destination unknown.
It is also mentioned that the Dutch fleet had re-
turned to the Texel, the Duke of Leeds having pre-
viously made a journey for an interview with the
Dutch admiral. This very mysterious circumstance
is wholly unexplained.
A certain gentleman who called on me to-day, in-
formed me that a packet had sailed the 16th of Au-
gust for Quebec, in which went passenger General
Clarke. He added that the rumor in England was,
that Sir Guy Carleton was to return in her. He
made no other communication.
The inclosed letter came to hand to-day. I have had
no opportunity of making any inquiry concerning the
person recommended in it. If I can obtain any addi-
tional lights, they shall be made known without delay.
The object suggested in your letter as preparatory
to the meeting of the Legislature shall engage my
particular attention.
The papers of the Department of State and the
Treasury, and of the commissioners for settling ac-
counts, are on their way to Philadelphia. On the
20th, I propose with my family to set out for the
same place.
TO JOHN JAY
MY DEAR SlR: Philadelphia, November 13, 1790.
I enclose you copies of two resolutions which
have passed the House of Representatives of Vir-
474 Alexander Hamilton
ginia. Others had been proposed and disagreed to.
But the war was still going on. A spirited remon-
strance to Congress is talked of. This is the first
symptom of a spirit which must either be killed, or
it will kill the Constitution of the United States. I
send the resolutions to you, that it may be considered
what ought to be done. Ought not the collective
weight of the different parts of the government to be
employed in exploding the principles they contain?
This question arises out of sudden and undigested
thought.1
TO WASHINGTON
Philadelphia, December 2, 1790.
Sir:
The day before yesterday I received a letter from
Mr. Woodbury Langdon, declining the appointment
offered him. There was a letter with it for you
which I immediately forwarded.
Since that time I have conversed with Mr. Lang-
don, and have heard from Mr. Gilman; the former
is warm in his recommendation of Mr. Keith Spence ;
he states that his insolvency was owing to the loss of
a valuable ship and cargo, and was attended with
the most honorable circumstances; that an imme-
diate adjustment with the creditors took place to
their entire satisfaction ; that the deficiency was only
;£ 1,000, which he considers as remitted; that Mr.
Spence was in partnership with Mr. Sherburne ; that
they have both been since in good business, and are
1 Reprinted from Life of Jay, ii., 202.
Private Correspondence 475
now more than able to pay whatever they may owe;
that the failure happened some years ago; that Mr.
Spence, though a native of Scotland, came early to
this country — is a man of education and abilities,
well known and respected — a firm friend to the Re-
volution and to the National Government — married
to a lady of New Hampshire, with whom he has
several children. He showed me a letter from Mr.
Spence, which gives a favorable impression of his
modesty and capacity.
Mr. Gilman talks of Mr. Spence as a man not gen-
erally known, and who, being by birth a foreigner,
is not as acceptable as a native to the people of that
country ; that his attachment to the American cause
was rather ambiguous ; that he married the daughter
of a person who is now in office in the Island of Ber-
muda, and lately made a visit there; that his in-
solvency would throw a shade on his appointment
in the public opinion.
He, on the other hand, warmly recommended a
Mr. William Gardiner, the present Treasurer of New
Hampshire; speaks decidedly of his good character,
and abilities as a man of business, and of his general
good standing in the State.
Mr. Langdon admits Mr. Gardiner to be a good
and a qualified man — says he was formerly his first
clerk, but affirms that Mr. Spence has greatly the
superiority in point of qualification — hints at an
arrangement between Mr. Gardiner and Mr. Gilman,
the late Loan Officer, by which Mr. Gilman expects
to succeed to the office of Treasurer, if the other ob-
tains that of Commissioner of Loans.
476 Alexander Hamilton
Thus stands my information as far as it goes; I
conjecture, on the whole, that Mr. Spence is an un-
exceptionable man, in every respect but that of his
late insolvency, and that he is probably better quali-
fied than Mr. Gardiner, or, in other words, a man of
more ability. That, nevertheless, Mr. Gardiner is
qualified for the office, and in other respects an
eligible person. Perhaps the appointment of him
will be, upon the whole, a safer one — freer from
hazard of imputation of any kind.
You are, I presume, not unapprised of a Langdon
and Gilman party in New Hampshire. Though it is
desirable this business should be finished, yet if it be
supposed likely that the arrival of the Eastern mem-
bers will afford any new light, a few days' delay can-
not be very important.
TO WILLIAM SETON «
Philadelphia, January 18, 1791.
My Dear Sir:
I have learnt with infinite pain the circumstances
of a new bank having started up in your city. Its
effects cannot but be in every way pernicious.
These extravagant sallies of speculation do injury to
the government and to the whole system of public
credit, by disgusting all sober citizens and giving a
wild air to every thing. 'T is impossible but that
three great banks in one city must raise such a mass
1 William Seton, a Scotchman by birth, and a well-known business
man of New York. He was Cashier of the Bank of New York, of
which Hamilton was one of the founders. See History of the Bank of
New York, by Henry W. Domett.
Private Correspondence 477
of artificial credit as must endanger every one of
them, and do harm in every view.
I sincerely hope that the Bank of New York will
listen to no coalition with this newly engendered
monster ; a better alliance, I am strongly persuaded,
will be brought about for it, and the joint force of
two solid institutions will, without effort or violence,
remove the excrescence which has just appeared,
and which I consider as a dangerous tumor in your
political and commercial economy.
I express myself in these strong terms to you con-
fidentially, not that I have any objection to my
opinion being known as to the nature and tendency
of the thing.
TO
Philadelphia, April 10, 1791.
Sir:
Your letter of the 15th of March duly came to
hand, though not till after the arrangement for the
execution of the act mentioned in your letter had
been made.
I wish you not to consider it as a mere compliment,
when I say that the light in which your character
stands could not fail to have brought you into view
in that arrangement, and could you be minutely
acquainted with every circumstance that in the
President's mind inclined the balance a different
way, you would find no reason to be dissatisfied
with the estimation in which you have been held.
You are well aware that in a comparison of the
478 Alexander Hamilton
pretensions of men of merit, collateral considerations
may be often justly allowed to turn the scale.
Suffer me to add that in the course of those future
opportunities which may be expected to occur, it
would give me a pleasure, as far as may be in my
power, to be instrumental in furnishing you with a
proper occasion for the exercise of your talents and
zeal in the service of the national government.
TO WASHINGTON «
April 10, 1791.
* * * It is to be lamented that our system is
such as still to leave the public peace of the Union
at the mercy of each State government. This is not
only the case as it regards direct interferences, but as
it regards the inability of the national government,
in many particulars, to take those direct measures
for carrying into execution its views and engage-
ments which exigencies require. For example: a
party comes from a county of Virginia into Penn-
sylvania and wantonly murders some friendly In-
dians. The national government, instead of having
power to apprehend murderers and bring them to
justice, is obliged to make a representation to that
of Pennsylvania; that of Pennsylvania again is to
make a representation to that of Virginia. And
whether the murderers shall be brought to justice
at all, must depend upon the particular policy and
energy and good disposition of two State govern-
ments and the efficacy of the provisions of their re-
1 The other parts of this letter are not to be found.
Private Correspondence 479
spective laws ; and the security of other States, and
the money of all, are at the discretion of one. These
things require a remedy.
TO WASHINGTON
Philadelphia, April 17, 1791.
You will probably recollect that previous to your
departure from this place, anticipating the event
which has taken place with regard to the death of
Mr. Everleigh, I took the liberty to mention to you
that Mr. Wolcott, the present Auditor, would be in
every respect worthy of your consideration as his
successor in office.
Now that the event has happened, a concern as
anxious as it was natural for the success of the depart-
ment, united with a sentiment of justice towards
Mr. Wolcott, leads me to a repetition of that idea.
This gentleman's conduct in the station he now fills
has been that of an excellent officer. It has not
only been good, but distinguished. It has com-
bined all the requisites which can be desired : mod-
eration with firmness, liberality with exactness,
indefatigable industry with an accurate and sound
discernment, a thorough knowledge of business, and
a remarkable spirit of order and arrangement. In-
deed, I ought to say that I owe very much of what-
ever success may have attended the merely executive
operations of the department to Mr. Wolcott; and
I do not fear to commit myself when I add that he
possesses in an eminent degree all the qualifications
480 Alexander Hamilton
desirable in a Comptroller of the Treasury — that it
is scarcely possible to find a man in the United States
more competent to the duties of that station than
himself; few who could be equally so. It may be
truly said of him that he is a man of rare merit, and
I have good evidence that he has been viewed in
this light by the members of Congress extensively
from different quarters of the Union, and is so con-
sidered by all that part of the public who have had
opportunities of witnessing his conduct.
The immediate relation, too, which his present
situation bears to that of Comptroller is a strong
argument in his favor. Though a regular gradation
of office is not admissible in a strict sense in regard
to offices of a civil nature, and is wholly inapplicable
to those of the first rank (such as the heads of the
great executive departments), yet a certain regard
to the relation which one situation bears to another
is consonant with the natural ideas of justice, and is
recommended by powerful considerations of policy.
The expectation of promotion in civil as in military
life is a great stimulus to virtuous exertion, while
examples of unrewarded exertion, supported by
talent and qualification, are proportionable discour-
agements. Where they do not produce resignations
they leave men dissatisfied, and a dissatisfied man
seldom does his duty well.
In a government like ours, where pecuniary com-
pensations are moderate, the principle of gradual
advancement as a reward for good conduct is per-
haps more necessary to be attended to than in others
where offices are more lucrative. By due attention
Private Correspondence 481
to it it will operate as a means to secure respectable
men for offices of inferior emolument and conse-
quence.
In addition to the rest, Mr. Wolcott 's experience
in this particular line pleads powerfully in his favor.
This experience may be dated back to his office of
Comptroller of the State of Connecticut, and has
been perfected by practice in his present place.
A question may perhaps, sir, arise in your mind,
whether some inconvenience may not attend his
removal from his present office. I am of opinion
that no sensible inconvenience will be felt on this
score, since it will be easy for him as Comptroller,
who is the immediate superior of the Auditor, to
form any man of business for the office he will leave,
in a short period of time. More inconvenience
would be felt by the introduction of a Comptroller
not in the immediate train of the business.
Besides this, it may be observed that a degree of
inconvenience on this score cannot be deemed an
obstacle, but upon the principle which would bar
the progress of merit from one station to another.
On this point of inconvenience a reflection occurs,
which I think I ought not to suppress. Mr. Wolcott
is a man of sensibility, not unconscious of his own
value, and he doubtless must believe that he has
pretensions from situation to the office. Should
another be appointed, and he resign, the derange-
ment of the department would truly be distressing
to the public service.
In suggesting thus particularly the reasons which
in my mind operate in favor of Mr. Wolcott, I am
VOL. IX.— 31.
482 Alexander Hamilton
influenced by information that other characters will
be brought to your view by weighty advocates, and
as I think it more than possible that Mr. Wolcott
may not be mentioned to you by any other person
than myself, I feel it a duty arising out of my situa-
tion in the department, to bear my full and explicit
testimony to his worth, confident that he will justify
by every kind of substantial merit any mark of your
approbation which he may receive.
I trust, sir, that in thus freely disclosing my sen-
timents to you, you will be persuaded that I only
yield to the suggestions of an honest zeal for the
public good, and of a firm conviction that the pros-
perity of the department under my particular care
(one so interesting to the aggregate movements of
the government) will be best promoted by trans-
ferring the present Auditor to the office of Comp-
troller of the Treasury.
TO WASHINGTON
gj£' Philadelphia, June 19, 1791.
I have been duly honored with your letter of the
13th inst., from Mount Vernon; and, according to
your desire have informed Mr. Wolcott of your in-
tention to appoint him Comptroller. This appoint-
ment gives me particular pleasure, as I am confident
it will be a great and real improvement in the state
of the Treasury Department. There can no material
inconvenience attend the postponing a decision con-
cerning the future Auditor till your arrival in this
city.
Private Correspondence 483
I am very happy to learn that the circumstances
of your journey have been in all respects so favorable.
It has certainly been a particularly fortunate one,
and I doubt not it will have been of real utility.
There is nothing which can be said to be new here
worth communicating, except generally that all my
accounts from Europe, both private and official,
concur in proving that the impressions now enter-
tained of our government and its affairs (I may say)
throughout that quarter of the globe, are of a nature
the most flattering and pleasing.
TO BENJAMIN GOODHUE x
Philadelphia, June 30, 1791.
My Dear Sir:
As Mr. Cone, who, I think, informed me he had a
letter from you on the same subject, undertook to
say all that could be said in relation to Mr. Gray's
affair, I permitted the hurry of business to keep me
silent. Nothing further concerning the affair has
since come to me, so that I am wholly ignorant what
turn it may have taken. It must have given you
pleasure to learn how much the Constitution of the
United States, and the measures under it, in which
you have had so considerable an agency, have con-
tributed to raise this country in the estimation of
Europe. According to the accounts received here,
the change which has been wrought in the opinion
of that part of the world respecting the United
1 Benjamin Goodhue, of Salem, Member of Congress from Massa-
chusetts.
4^4 Alexander Hamilton
States is almost wonderful. The British Cabinet
wish to be thought disposed to enter into amicable
and liberal arrangements with us. They had ap-
pointed Mr. Elliott, who, on private considerations,
had declined; and it is affirmed from pretty good,
though not decisive authority, that they have sub-
stituted a Mr. Hammond, and that his arrival may j
shortly be expected. I would not warrant the issue, [
but if some liberal arrangement with Great Britain
should ensue, it will have a prodigious effect upon
the conduct of some other parts of Europe. It is,
however, most wise for us to depend as little as pos-
sible upon European caprice, and to exert ourselves
to the utmost to unfold and improve every domestic
resource.
In all appearance, the subscriptions to the Bank
of the United States will proceed with astonishing
rapidity. It will not be surprising if a week com-
pletes them.
TO MRS. MARTHA WALKER
MADAM : Philadelphia, July 2, 1791.
Mr. Ames x has conveyed to me your letter of the
9th of May.
Hitherto it has not been in my power to consider
the merits of your application to Congress, but you
may be assured of its being done so as to admit of a
report at the commencement of the ensuing session.
1 Fisher Ames, Member of Congress from Massachusetts, and well
known for his ability and eloquence. I can find nothing in the State
papers or in the Annals of Congress to explain Mrs. Walker or her
claim.
Private Correspondence 485
While I dare not encourage any expectation, and
while my conduct must be determined by my sense
of official propriety and duty, I may with great truth
say that I shall enter into the examination with
every prepossession which can be inspired by favor-
able impression of personal merit, and by a sym-
pathetic participation in the distresses of a lady as
deserving as unfortunate.
TO RUFUS KING
My Dear Sir: July 8,1791.
I received your letter on a certain subject, and
was obliged by it. But there was nothing practica-
ble by way of remedy.
The thing, as it has turned out, though good in the
main, has certainly some ill sides. There have also
been faults in the detail, which are not favorable to
complete satisfaction. But what shall we do? 'T is
the lot of every thing human to mingle a portion of
evil with the good.
The President, as you will have seen, has re-
turned. His journey has done good, as it regards
his own impressions. He is persuaded that the
dispositions of the Southern people are good, and
that certain pictures which have been drawn have
been strongly colored by the imagination of the
drawers.
We have just heard from the Westward, but of no
event of importance. Things are said to have been
in good preparation; the people of Kentucky won-
derfully pleased with the government; and Scot,
486 Alexander Hamilton
with a corps of ardent volunteers, on their route to
demolish every savage, man, woman, and child.
On Tuesday next I expect to leave this for New
York, with Mrs. Hamilton.
TO RUFUS KING
August 7, 1 791.
Your letter of Monday evening has a good deal
tranquillized me. I am glad to learn that the mis-
chiefs from the over-use of scrip are not likely to be
very extensive.
I observe what you say respecting the quotation
of my opinion. I was not unaware of the delicacy
of giving any, and was sufficiently reserved until I
perceived the extreme to which bank scrip, and with
it other stock, was tending. But when I saw this I
thought it advisable to speak out — for a bubble
connected with any operation is, of all the enemies I
have to fear, in my judgment the most formidable;
and not only not to promote, but, as far as depends
on me, to counteract, delusions, appears to me
to be the only secure foundation on which to
stand. I thought it expedient, therefore, to risk
some thing in contributing to dissolve the charm.
But I find that I have been misquoted. Speaking of
sales on time at seventy-four shillings for 6 per cent.,
etc., I think it probable I may have intimated an
opinion that they went faster than could be sup-
ported. But it is untrue that I have given as a
standard prices below those of the market, as men-
tioned by you. On the contrary, my standard, on
Private Correspondence 487
pretty mature reflection, has been and is nearly as
follows :
For bank scrip 195
6 per cents 22
3 per cents 12
Deferred . . . . 12 8
I proceed on the idea of 5 per cent, interest —
taking at the same time into calculation the partial
irredeemability of the 6 per cents.
I give you my standard, that you may be able if
necessary to contradict insinuations of an estima-
tion on my part short of that standard — for the pur-
pose of depressing the funds.
TO TIMOTHY PICKERING
Philadelphia, Aug. 13, 1791.
Dear Sir:
Some investigations in which I am engaged in-
duce a wish to be able to form as accurate an idea as
can be obtained of the usual product in proportion
to the value of cultivated lands in different parts of
the United States.
As I am persuaded no person can better assist me
in this object than yourself, I take the liberty to
ask the favor of your assistance.
It has occurred to me that if the actual product on
cultivated farms of middling quality could be ascer-
tained with tolerable precision, it might afford as
good a rule by which to judge as the nature of the
thing admits of.
488 Alexander Hamilton
With this view I have prepared a form with a num-
ber of columns under heads specifying the different
kinds of produce usual in your quarter, in order that
they may be filled in each case according to the fact
and as the nature of each head shall require.
There are besides some additional columns which
respect the total value of the farm and the different
kinds of land of which it consists.
The value of the farm must be determined not by
what it would fetch in cash on a forced or sudden
sale, but by what it would sell for at a reasonable and
usual credit, or perhaps by what the opinion of the
neighborhood would compute to be its true value.
The quantity of each kind of land must conform
to the actual quantity in cultivation at the time for
which the product is taken.
It is submitted to your judgment, according to
circumstances, whether to determine the product by
the average of a series of years, three or more, or by
what has been considered as a year of middling
fertility.
The price ought to express the value of each ar-
ticle on the farm. Perhaps to determine this there
is no better rule than to deduct the expense of trans-
portation, from the price at the nearest usual market.
The high price of an extraordinary year would not
be a proper criterion ; but that which is deemed by
intelligent and reasonable farmers a good saving
price.
If not inconvenient to you to execute my present
request, you will add to the favor by explaining in
each case the rule by which you have proceeded;
Private Correspondence
489
and if it would not be attended with too much
trouble, the extension of the inquiry to two or three
different farms would be satisfactory.
In a matter with which I am not very familiar, it
is possible I may have omitted circumstances of im-
portance to the object of my inquiry. The supply-
ing of such omissions will be particularly acceptable.
As whatever comes from the Treasury is apt to
be suspected of having reference to some scheme of
taxation, it is my wish that the knowledge of this
request may be confined to yourself. And I think
it not amiss to add that in truth it has not the most
remote reference to any such purpose.1
1 Now first printed from the Pickering papers in the possession of the
Massachusetts Historical Society.
The form inclosed is as follows :
Value of Farm
Kinds
Acres of Arable Land
OF
Acres of Pasture Land
Land
Acres of Meadow
Acres of Woodland
Bushels of Wheat
Bushels of Corn
Bushels of Oats
Bushels of Barley
Bushels of Buckwheat
Annual
Product
Bushels of Potatoes
Other Roots and Vegetables in
Black Cattle
Hogs
Pounds of Tobacco
Cords of Wood Consumed in Fuel. .
Hay
Quantity Consumed by Cattle and Poultry.
Prices.
49° Alexander Hamilton
TO WILLIAM SETON
Treasury Department, Aug. 15, 1791.
Inclosed is a resolution of the Trustees of the
Sinking Fund, appropriating a certain sum for the
purchase of public debt, within certain limits therein
specified; in consequence of that resolution I have
concluded to apply one hundred and fifty thousand
dollars towards purchases in the city of New York,
and to ask you to undertake the execution of the
business. In thus forbearing to employ some officer
of the United States, and having recourse to your
aid, I am governed by the consideration that your
situation would lead to such an execution of the
business as might at the same time best consist with
the accommodation of the Bank of New York.
Inclosed is a letter to the directors of the bank, re-
questing them to pay to you the above-mentioned
sum. You will, of course, however, only avail your-
self of this authority in proportion to the actual
purchases you shall make, as you will please to ad-
vise me weekly of such as you may be able to effect.
The Trustees have never yet determined on any
allowance to the persons who have been employed
in similar purchases, nor is it clear how much is in
their power on this point. I can therefore only say
that the same rule will govern in your case as in that
of others.1
1 Now first printed, with the inclosures which follow, from the
Hamilton papers in the State Department.
(Inclosure.)
Whereupon it is Resolved:
1. That the aforesaid sum to purchase, at the following rates: To
the purchase of funded stock, bearing a present interest of six per
Private Correspondence 491
TO WILLIAM SETON
(Private.)
Philadelphia, Aug. 16, 1791.
I send you herewith an official letter ; this private
one I write as explanatory of it. I hardly expect
that you will be able to procure the debt within the
limits prescribed, and yet I do not know what effect
the imprudent speculations in bank scrip may pro-
duce. A principal object with me is to keep the
stock from falling too low in case the embar-
rassments of the dealers should lead to sacrifices;
whence you will infer that it is not my wish that the
centum, at twenty shillings in the pound; funded debt, bearing an
interest of three per centum, at twelve shillings in the pound; and
deferred debt, at twelve shillings and six-pence in the pound.
2. That if any of the aforesaid species of debt be lower than the
rates here fixed, preference be given to it.
3. That any surplus of the said purchase money or the whole, as
the case, under the preceding circumstances may be, be applied in the
first instance to the purchases of the three per cents and the deferred
debt, as far as they can be obtained, and afterwards to the purchase
of funded stock of six per cent.
4. That the cities of Philadelphia and New York be the places of
purchases.
In behalf of the Board,
(Signed) Th. Jefferson.
(Inclosure.)
To the President, Directors, and Co. of the Bank of New York:
Treasury Department, Aug. 16, 1791.
Gentlemen:
You will please cause to be paid to William Seton, Esq., such sums,
not exceeding in the whole one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, as
he may require, to be applied by him towards purchases of the public
debt, at the request of the Trustees of the Sinking Fund; the advances
you shall make, when known, will be covered in the requisite forms.
Yours, etc.,
(Signed) A. Hamilton.
492 Alexander Hamilton
purchases should be below the prescribed limits, yet
if such should unfortunately be the state of the
market, it must of course govern. The limits as-
signed for the purchases of 3-per-cents and deferred
debt are founded on a calculation of the government
rate of interest being 5 per cent. The same rule has
not been extended to the stock bearing an imme-
diate interest of 6 per cent., because the government
have a right to redeem it at par in certain propor-
tions; and though to individual purchasers it is
worth more than par, because a part only can be
redeemed, yet it is not at present the interest of the
government to give more than par for it, because of
the right to redeem a part. Indeed, the law limits
the commissioners in this particular. You will
recollect that the act requires that the purchases
should be made openly. This has been construed to
mean by a known agent for the public. When you
make a purchase, therefore, it will be proper that it
should be understood that it is on account of the
United States, but this need not precede the pur-
chase; and it will be best that there should be no
unnecessary demonstration, lest it should raise hopes
beyond what will be realized.
P. S. — If the prices of stocks should exceed the
prescribed limits, you may retain the letter to the
directors. If there are any gentlemen who support
the funds and others who depress them, I shall be
pleased that your purchases may aid the former, —
this in great confidence.
Private Correspondence 493
TO WILLIAM DUER
Philadelphia, Aug. 17, 1791.
My Dear Friend:
I have received your two letters of the 12th and
10th.
The subscription-book for the Manufacturing So-
ciety did not remain with me nor with either of the
two gentlemen who came on with me. Is it with
neither of those who accompanied you ? If it is not,
it must have been left at Brunswick, and you will
do well to write to some trusty person there to look
it up and send it to you. I am impatient for the
alterations which were agreed upon, and a list of the
subscribers.
La Roche may go to Scioto, if he can be back in
the time you mention.
I fear that in the hurry of writing my letter on
the subject of bank scrip, I must have expressed
myself more strongly than was intended.
The conversation here was: " Bank scrip is getting
so high as to become a bubble," in one breath; in
another: " 'T is a South-Sea dream"; in a third:
" There is a combination of knowing ones at New
York to raise it as high as possible by fictitious pur-
chases, in order to take in the credulous and ig-
norant"; in another: "Duer, Constable, and some
others are mounting the balloon as fast as possible.
If it don't soon burst, thousands will rue it," etc.,
etc.
As to myself, my friend, I think I know you too
well to suppose you capable of such views as were
implied in those innuendoes, or to harbor the most
494 Alexander Hamilton
distant thought that you could wander from the
path either of public good or private integrity. But
I will honestly own I had serious fears for you — for
your purse and for your reputation; and with an
anxiety for both, I wrote to you in earnest terms.
You are sanguine, my friend. You ought to be
aware of it yourself and to be on your guard against
the propensity. I feared lest it might carry you
further than was consistent either with your own
safety or the public good. My friendship for you
and my concern for the public cause were both
alarmed. If the infatuation had continued pro-
gressive, and any extensive mischiefs had ensued,
you would certainly have had a large portion of the
blame. Conscious of this I wrote to you in all the
earnestness of apprehensive friendship.
I do not widely differ from you about the real
value of bank scrip. I should rather call it about
190, to be within bounds, with hopes of better things,
and I sincerely wish you may be able to support it
at what you mention. The acquisition of too much
of it by foreigners will certainly be an evil.
TO WILLIAM SETON
Treasury Department, Aug. 22, 1791.
I have to acknowledge the receipt of yours of the
1 8th. The transfer of the stock which you have
purchased on account of the United States must be
made to the Vice-President, the Chief -Justice, the
Private Correspondence 495
Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of State, and
the Attorney -General for the time being.
In all future purchases, it will be most convenient
to have the stock in the first instance transferred as
here directed.1
TO WILLIAM SETON
Treasury Department, Sept. 7, 1791.
I write herewith to the directors of the Bank of
New York to advance you a further sum of fifty
thousand dollars towards purchases of the public
debt on account of the United States, on the same
principles with the sum heretofore advanced to you
for the like purpose.1
TO THE PRESIDENT, DIRECTORS, ETC., OF THE BANK
OF NEW YORK
Treasury Department, Sept. 7, 1791.
Gentlemen :
I request you to furnish the cashier of your bank
with the further sum of fifty thousand dollars, to be
by him applied towards purchases of the public
debts on account of the United States.
P. S. — A warrant will issue to-morrow to cover
the 150,000 dollars already advanced for the same
purpose.1
1 Now first printed from the Hamilton papers in the State Depart-
ment.
496 Alexander Hamilton
TO WILLIAM SETON
(Private.)
September 7, 1791.
You will find by the letter herewith that you are
furnished with a further sum of 50,000 dollars for
purchases. I wish I could have gone farther, but
my hands are tied by the want of a majority of the
Trustees being present, Mr. Jefferson being just gone
to Virginia. The $50,000 now authorized, and the
sum appropriated here for the same purpose, com-
plete what has as yet been determined to be applied.
You may, however, make it known that the
treasurer is purchasing here, etc.1
TO WILLIAM SETON
(Private.)
September 8, 1791.
I wrote you a private letter last evening, which
went by a private opportunity. The principal
object was to inform you that I could not exceed
the sum now directed to be advanced for want of
authority, the present $50,000 completing the
sum heretofore appropriated by the Trustees, and
there not being here a sufficient number for a Board;
that purchases by the Treasurer were going on
here z
1 Now first printed from the Hamilton papers in the State Depart-
ment.
Private Correspondence 497
TO A FRIEND
September 30, 1791.
Dear Sir:
If you can conveniently let me have twenty dollars
for a few days, be so good as to send it by bearer. I
have just put myself out of cash by payment of
Major L'Enfant's bill.1
TO WASHINGTON
Philadelphia, Oct. it, 1791.
Sir:
Lord Wycomb having mentioned to me his inten-
tions to pay you his respects at Mount Vernon, I
beg your permission to present him to you.
The personal acquirements and permits of his
lordship conspire, with a consideration for the
friendly dispositions and liberal policy of his father,
the Marquis of Lansdowne, towards this country, to
constitute a claim in his favor to cordial notice.
TO GENERAL KNOX
October 17, 1791.
Dear Sir:
The following are the particulars in the President's
letter which he expects you to prepare.
1 Reprinted from Reminiscences of J. A. Hamilton, p. 7. The letter
is a curious one, because it shows how really pressed Hamilton was for
even small sums of money. On the back of the letter is the following:
Memorandum by the lender : — " Gave a check for fifty dollars, dated
Sept. 30, 1791."
VOL. IX— 3a.
498 Alexander Hamilton
Expeditions against the Indians. Every pacific
measure was previously tried to produce accord and
avoid expense.
More pointed laws, with penalties to restrain our
own people; and this and good faith may produce
tranquillity.
Treaties with Cherokees and Six Nations, and
reasons.
I annex to the first the hints in the President's
letter.
You will, of course, send any other things that
occur on any point1
TO WILLIAM SETON
November 25, 1791.
My Dear Sir:
I seize the first moment of leisure to answer your
letter of the 21st inst. Strange as it may appear to
you, it is not more strange than true that the whole
affair of branches was begun, continued, and ended,
not only without my participation, but against my
judgment.
When I say against my judgment, you will not
understand that my opinion was given and over-
ruled, for I never was consulted; but that the steps
taken were contrary to my private opinion of the
course which ought to have been pursued.
I am sensible of the inconveniences to be appre-
hended, and I regret them, but I do not know that
it will be in my power to avert them.
1 Now first printed from the Knox papers in the possession of the
New England Historic Genealogical Society.
Private Correspondence 499
Ultimately it will be incumbent on me to place
the public funds in the keeping of the branch ; but it
may be depended upon that I shall precipitate nothing,
but shall so conduct the transfer as not to embarrass
or distress your institution. I have not time to say
more at present, except that if there are finally to be
two institutions, my regard for you makes me wish
you may feel yourself at liberty to take your fortune
with the branch which must preponderate.
TO PHILIP HAMILTON x
Philadelphia, Dec. 5, 1791.
I received with great pleasure, my dear Philip, the
letter which you wrote me last week. Your mamma
and myself were very happy to learn that you are
pleased with your situation, and content to stay as
long as shall be thought best for you. We hope and
believe that nothing will happen to alter this dispo-
sition. Your master also informs me that you re-
cited a lesson the first day you began, very much to
his satisfaction. I expect every letter from him will
give me a fresh proof of your progress, for I know you
can do a great deal if you please, and I am sure
you have too much spirit not to exert yourself that
you may make us every day more and more proud
of you. You remember that I engaged to send for
you next Saturday, and I will do it, unless you re-
quest me to put it off, for a promise must never be
broken, and I never will make you one which I will
1 His eldest son.
500 Alexander Hamilton
not fill as far as I am able ; but it has occurred to me
that the Christmas holidays are near at hand, and I
suppose your school will then break up for a few
days and give you an opportunity of coming to stay
with us for a longer time than if you should come on
Saturday. Will it not be best, therefore, to put off
your journey till the holidays? But determine as
you like best, and let me know what will be most
pleasing to you. A good night to my darling son.1
TO NICHOLAS GOUVERNEUR *
1792.
Mr. B. last evening delivered me your letter, en-
closing a copy of your correspondence with Mr.
Lewis. In one other respect I feel myself painfully
situated, having received a favorable impression of
your character. I am sorry to observe any thing to
have come from you which I am obliged to consider
as exceptionable. Your second letter to Mr. Lewis
contains a general, and of course an unjustifiable re-
flection on the profession to which I belong, and of
a nature to put it out of my power to render you any
service in the line of that profession. I really be-
lieve that you did not attend to the full force of the
expression when you tell Mr. Lewis, "Attorneys like
to make the most of their bills of cost"; but it con-
tains in it other insinuations which cannot be pleas-
ing to any man in the profession, and which must
oblige any one that has the proper delicacy to de-
1 Reprinted from the Reminiscences of J. A. Hamilton, p. 4.
2 A merchant of New York.
Private Correspondence 501
cline the business of a person who professedly enter-
tains such an idea of the conduct of this profession.
I make allowance for your feelings when you wrote
that letter, and am therefore reluctantly drawn into
these observations.1
TO GULIAN VERPLANCK AND OTHERS
Philadelphia, Jan. 15, 1792.
Gentlemen :
The mark of esteem on the part of fellow-citizens,
to whom I am attached by so many ties, which is
announced in your letter of 29th of December, is
entitled to my affectionate acknowledgments.
I shall cheerfully obey their wish as far as respects
the taking of my portrait, but I ask that they will
permit it to appear unconnected with any incident
of my political life. The simple representation of
their fellow-citizen and friend will best accord with
my feelings.
TO WILLIAM SETON
Philadelphia, Jan. 24, 1792.
My Dear Sir:
I feel great satisfaction in knowing from yourself
that your institution rejects the idea of a coalition
with the new project, or rather hydra of projects.
I shall labor to give what has taken place a turn
favorable to another union, the propriety of which is,
as you say, clearly illustrated by the present state of
1 Reprinted from Reminiscences of J. A. Hamilton, p. 6.
502 Alexander Hamilton
things. It is my wish that the Bank of New York
may, by all means, continue to receive deposits from
the Collector in the paper of the Bank of the United
States, and that they may also receive payment for
the Dutch bills in the same paper. This paper may
either be remitted to the Treasurer, or remain in the
bank, as itself shall deem most expedient. I have
explicitly directed the Treasurer to forbear drawing
on the Bank of New York without special direction
from me. And my intention is to leave you in pos-
session of all the money you have or may receive till
I am assured that the present storm is effectually
weathered.
Everybody here sees the propriety of your having
refused the paper of the Bank of the United States
in such a crisis of your affairs. Be confidential with
me ; if you are pressed, whatever support may be in
my power shall be afforded. I consider the public
interest as materially involved in aiding a valuable
institution like yours to withstand the attacks of a
confederated host of frantic and, I fear, in too many
instances, unprincipled gamblers.
Adieu. Heaven take care of good men and good
views!
TO WILLIAM DUER x
MY DEAR DUER: Philadelphia, March 14, 1792.
Your letter of the nth got to hand this day. I
am affected beyond measure at its contents, especi-
ally as it was too late to have any influence upon the
1 Duer had speculated deeply and failed disastrously.
Private Correspondence 5°3
event you were apprehensive of, Mr. Wolcott's in-
structions having gone off yesterday.
I trust, however, the alternative which they
present to the attorney of the , and the dis-
cretion he will use in managing the affair, will enable
you to avoid any pernicious tclat, if your affairs are
otherwise retrievable.
Be this as it may, act with fortitude and honor. If
you cannot reasonably hope for a favorable extrica-
tion, do not plunge deeper. Have the courage to
make a full stop. Take all the care you can in the
first place of institutions of public utility, and in the
next of all fair creditors.
God bless you, and take care of you and your
family. I have experienced all the bitterness of
soul on your account which a warm attachment can
inspire. I will not now pain you with any wise re-
marks, though if you recover the present stroke, I
shall take great liberties with you. Assure yourself,
in good and bad fortune, of my sincere friendship and
affection.
TO WILLIAM SETON
(Private)
Philadelphia, March 25, 1793.
If six per cents, should sink below par, you may
purchase on account of the United States at par to
the extent of fifty thousand dollars. You will not,
however, declare on whose account you act, because,
though there is, as to a purchase on that principle,
504 Alexander Hamilton
no difference of opinion among the trustees, the
thing is not formally arranged, and this is Sunday.
It will be very probably conjectured that you ap-
pear for the public, and the conjecture may be left
to have its course, but without confession. The pur-
chase ought, in the present state of things, to be at
auction, and not till to-morrow evening. But if the
purchase at auction will not tend as well to the pur-
pose of relief as a different mode, it may be departed
from; the usual note must be made of persons, time,
etc. You will consider whether done all at once, or
a part now and a part then, will best answer the pur-
pose; in the state of this market the latter mode is
found preferable. I have just received a letter from
Mr. Short, our minister resident, dated Amsterdam,
28th December, by which he informs me that he
has effected a loan for three millions of florins at four
per cent, interest, on account of the United States.
This may be announced ; and as, in the present mo-
ment of suspicion, some minds may be disposed to
consider the thing as a mere expedient to support
the stocks, I pledge my honor for its exact truth.
Why then so much despondency among the hold-
ers of our stock? When foreigners lend the United
States at four per cent., will they not purchase here
upon a similar scale, making reasonable allowance
for expense of agency, etc.? Why then do indi-
viduals part with so good a property so much
below its value? Does Duer's failure affect the
solidity of the government?
After paying the present quarter's interest I shall
have near a million dollars in cash, and a million
Private Correspondence 5°5
more in bonds from the duties of last year. All this
is truly so much beforehand. The duties for the
current year being fully adequate to the objects of
the year, except the further sum of about five hun-
dred thousand dollars for the western expedition,
for which the ways and means have been proposed.
Is the treasury of Great Britain comparatively in
so good a state ? Is the nation comparatively so
equal to its debt? Why then so much depression?
I shall be answered, The immediate necessity for
money. But if the banks are forbearing as to the
necessity of paying up, cannot the parties give each
other mutual credit and avoid so great a press? If
there are a few harpies who will not concur in this
forbearance, let such be paid and execrated, and let
others forbear. The necessity of great sacrifices
among your dealers cannot affect the nation, but it
may deeply wound the city of New York by a trans-
fer to foreigners and citizens of other States of a
large mass of property greatly below its value. The
face of your affairs may undergo for a considerable
time a serious change. Would not the plan I sug-
gested to you in my last be a means of securing more
effectually the debts due to the bank by accepting in
part payment the credits on your books?
While I encourage due exertion in the banks, I
observe that I hope they will put nothing to risk.
No calamity truly public can happen while these in-
stitutions remain sound. They must, therefore, not
yield too far to the impulse of circumstances.
506 Alexander Hamilton
TO WILLIAM SETON
(Private)
Philadelphia, April 4, 1792.
The post of to-day brought me a letter from you.
I am pained beyond expression at the picture you
and others give me of the situation of my fellow-
citizens, especially as an ignorance of the extent of
the disorder renders it impossible to judge whether
any adequate remedy can be applied.
You may apply another 50,000 dollars to pur-
chases at such a time as you judge it can be rend-
ered most useful. The prices may be 205. for 6 per
cents., 125. for 3 per cents., and 12s. 6d. for deferred.
The law and the object require that it should be
known you purchase for the public. I shall by the
next post send an official authorization.
I have doubt, however, whether it will be best to
apply this immediately or wait the happening of the
crisis, which I fear is inevitable. If, as is represented,
a pretty extensive explosion is to take place, the de-
pression of the funds at such a moment will be in the
extreme, and then it may be more important than
now to enter the market in force. I can in such a
a case without difficulty add a hundred thousand
dollars — probably a larger sum. But you, who are
on the spot, being best able to calculate consequences,
I leave the proper moment of operating to your judg-
ment. To relieve the distressed and support the
funds are primary objects. As it may possibly be-
come advisable for the bank to receive payments in
stock from embarrassed persons, it may not be amiss
that you should know as a guide that there are at
Private Correspondence 507
this moment orders from a respectable Dutch con-
cern to purchase 6 per cents, at 24s. if bills can be
sold at par ; of this I have the most unequivocal evi-
dence. This is a proof that foreigners will be willing
to give that price. How vexatious that imprudent
speculations of individuals should lead to an aliena-
tion of the national property at such under-rates as
are now given ! I presume your greatest embarrass-
ments arise from the contracts to pay and deliver
not yet at issue. Is it possible to form any conjec-
ture of their extent?
TO WILLIAM SETON
(Private.)
Philadelphia, April ia, 1792.
I have your letters of the ioth and i ith, and, more
to my distress and surprise, I learn by other letters
a confirmation of what you apprehended, namely,
Mr. Macomb's failure. This misfortune has, I fear, a
long tail to it.
The enclosed, you will perceive, gives you addi-
tional latitude. The terms as heretofore for 6 per
cents., 20s.; 3 per cents. 125.; and deferred 12s. 6d.
You must judge of the best mode and manner of
applying the sum. The operation here not being ex-
tensive, I have found it best to eke out my aid. I
doubt whether this will answer with you. My reason
was to keep up men's spirits by appearing often,
though not much at one time. All is left to you.
You will doubtless be cautious in securing your
transfer before you pay.
508 Alexander Hamilton
TO THE DIRECTORS AND COMPANY OF THE BANK OP
NEW YORK
Treasury Department, April 12, 1792.
Gentlemen :
Since my official letter to you authorizing an ad-
vance to your cashier of fifty thousand dollars, to be
applied to the purchase of public debt on account of
the United States, I have authorized that gentleman
to apply for another fifty thousand dollars, and to
make the like use of it. I now confirm this direction,
and add my desire that he may be furnished with a
further sum of fifty thousand dollars, making in the
whole one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, the
whole for the purpose above mentioned.
TO WILLIAM DUER
April 22, 1792.
My Dear Duer:
I hoped ere this to have seen you, to have afforded
you whatever of aid could have resulted from my
advice, after knowing your real situation. But the
session protracts itself, and I can scarcely say when
it will finish. Lest the information contained in
my last should induce you to postpone an arrange-
ment with your creditors in the hope of speedily
having an opportunity of consulting me, I have
thought it best to apprise you of the degree of delay
which may attend my proposed visit to New York.
Indeed, I can hardly flatter myself that my advice
could be of any real importance to you.
Private Correspondence 509
How are you? How are your family? At a mo-
ment of composure I shall be glad to hear from you.
Eliza joins me in affectionate remembrances to
Lady Kitty.1 Farewell.
TO WILLIAM SETON
Treasury Department, May 10, 1792.
Sir:
I received your letter of the 7th inst., covering an
account of stock purchased by you for the United
States.
I observe that you have exceeded the sum which
was limited by me to the amount of one thousand and
ninety-eight dollars and eighty-nine cents; but so
small a difference is not very material, and I am
willing that the whole should remain on account of
the United States.
In order to a winding up of the business, I have
now to request that you will, as soon as it can be
conveniently done, cause all the stock to be trans-
ferred in the names of the trustees as heretofore, and
that you will then procure from the commissioner
and forward to me the necessary certificates for
transferring the stock from the books of the commis-
sioner to those of the treasurer.
1 " Lady Kitty" was Duer's wife. Mrs. Duer who was a beauty and
belle in the society of that day (see Griswold's Republican Court) was
Katherine Alexander, daughter of William Alexander, the unsuccessful
claimant to the earldom of Stirling. He was, as is well known, a dis-
tinguished officer in our war for independence, and was commonly
called "Lord Stirling," from which his youngest daughter came to be
known as "Lady Kitty."
510 Alexander Hamilton
You will please to accept of my best acknowledg-
ment for this additional mark of your zeal for the
public service, and believe me to be, etc.
TO WILLIAM DUER
May 23, 1793.
My dear Duer, five minutes ago I received your
letter of yesterday. I hasten to express to you my
thoughts, as your situation does not permit of delay.
I am of opinion that those friends who have lent you
their money or security from personal confidence in
your honor, and without being interested in the
operations in which you may have been engaged,
ought to be taken care of absolutely, and preferably
to all creditors. In the next place, public institu-
tions ought to be secured. On this point the manu-
facturing society will claim peculiar regard. I am
told the funds of that society have been drawn out
of both banks; I trust they are not diverted. The
public interest and my reputation are deeply con-
cerned in the matter. Your affairs with the govern-
ment, as connected with your office as assistant to
the Board of Treasury, will deserve your particular
attention. Persons of whom you have made actual
purchases and whose property has been delivered to
you, would stand next after public institutions.
But here perhaps some arbitration may be made. It
would certainly be desirable to distinguish between
the price of stock at the time of purchase and its en-
hanced price upon time. With regard to contracts
merely executory, and in regard to which differences
would be to be paid, no stock having been delivered,
Private Correspondence 511
I postpone claims of this nature to all others. They
ought not to interfere with any claim which is
founded on value actually given. As to the usurious
tribe: these present themselves under different as-
pects. Are these women, or ignorant people, or
trustees of infants ? The real principal advanced
and legal interest would, in such cases, stand, in my
mind, on high ground. The mere veteran usurers
may be taken greater liberties with. Their real
principal and interest, however, abstracted from
usurious accumulation, would stand better than
claims constituted wholly by profits from specula-
tive bargains. But the following course deserves
consideration: Take care of debts to friends who
have aided you by their money or credit disinterest-
edly, and the public institutions. Assign the rest of
your property for the benefit of creditors generally.
The law will do the rest. Whenever usury can be
proved, the contract, I take it, will be null. Where
it cannot be proved, the parties will be obliged to
acknowledge on oath, and then their principal and
interest only will be due. Wherever a fair account
can be stated, and all the sums borrowed and paid
can be set against each other, it is probable it will be
found that more has been paid than, on a computa-
tion of legal interest, was ever received. Here, I
presume, the demand would be extinguished, and
possibly the parties would be compelled to disgorge.
These are rather desultory thoughts than a system-
atic view of the subject. I wish I had more time to
form a more digested opinion, but as I have not you
must take what I can give. Adieu, my unfortunate
512 Alexander Hamilton
friend. God bless you and extricate you with re-
putation. Again adieu. Be honorable, calm, and
firm.1
TO WILLIAM SETON
Philadelphia, May 25, 1792.
My Dear Sir:
The society for the establishing of useful manu-
factures, at their last meeting resolved to borrow
a sum of five thousand dollars upon a pledge of de-
ferred stock. Mr. Walker is empowered to nego-
tiate the loan, and I expect application will be made
to the Bank of New York for it. I have a strong
wish that the directors of that bank may be disposed
to give facilities to this institution upon terms of
perfect safety to itself. I will add that from its
situation it is much the interest of our city that it
should succeed. It is not difficult to discern the
advantage of being the immediate market of a con-
siderable manufacturing town. A pledge of public
stock will completely fulfil the idea of perfect secur-
ity. I will add more, that in my opinion banks
ought to afford accommodation in such cases upon
easy terms of interest. I think five per cent, ought
to suffice, for a direct public good is presented. And
institutions of this kind, within reasonable limits,
ought to consider it as a principal object to promote
beneficial public purposes.
To you, my dear sir, I will not scruple to say in
confidence that the Bank of New York shall suffer no
1 Reprinted from the History of the Republic, iv., 289.
Private Correspondence 513
diminution of its pecuniary facilities from any ac-
commodation it may afford to the society in ques-
tion. I feel my reputation much concerned in its
welfare.
I would not wish any formal communication of
this letter to the directors, but you may make
known my wishes to such of them as you may judge
expedient.
TO COLONEL EDWARD CARRINGTON x
Philadelphia, May 26, 1792.
My Dear Sir:
Believing that I possess a share of your personal
friendship and confidence, and yielding to that which
I feel towards you ; persuaded also, that our political
creed is the same on two essential points — first, the
necessity of Union to the respectability and happi-
ness of this country, and second, the necessity of an
efficient general government to maintain the Union,
I have concluded to unbosom myself to you, on the
present state of political parties and views. I will
ask no reply to what I shall say ; I only ask that you
will be persuaded the representations I shall make
are agreeable to the real and sincere impressions of
my mind. You will make the due allowance for the
influence of circumstances upon it; you will consult
your own observations, and you will draw such a
conclusion as shall appear to you proper. When I
accepted the office I now hold, it was under full per-
suasion, that from similarity of thinking, conspiring
1 Col. Carrington, of Virginia, was an old and trusted friend of
Hamilton.
VOL. IX.— 33. ^
514 Alexander Hamilton
with personal good-will, I should have the firm sup-
port of Mr. Madison, in the general course of my
administration. Aware of the intrinsic difficulties
of the situation, and of the powers of Mr. Madison, I
do not believe I should have accepted under a differ-
ent supposition. I have mentioned the similarity of
thinking between that gentleman and myself. This
was relative, not merely to the general principles of
national policy and government, but to the leading
points, which were likely to constitute questions in
the administration of the finances. I mean, first,
the expediency of funding the debt ; second, the in-
expediency of discrimination between original and
present holders; third, the expediency of assuming
the State debts.
As to the first point, the evidence of Mr. Madison's
sentiments, at one period, is to be found in the ad-
dress of Congress, of April twenty-sixth, seventeen
hundred and eighty- three, which was planned by
him, in conformity to his own ideas, and without any
previous suggestions from the committee, and with
his hearty co-operation in every part of the business.
His conversations upon various occasions since have
been expressive of a continuance in the same senti-
ment; nor, indeed, has he yet contradicted it, by any
part of his official conduct. How far there is reason
to apprehend a change in this particular, will be
stated hereafter. As to the second part, the same
address is an evidence of Mr. Madison's sentiments
at the same period. And I had been informed that
at a later period he had been, in the Legislature of
Virginia, a strenuous and successful opponent of the
Private Correspondence 515
principle of discrimination. Add to this, that a
variety of conversations had taken place between
him and myself, respecting the public debt, down to
the commencement of the new government, in none
of which had he glanced at the idea of a change of
opinion. I wrote him a letter after my appointment,
in the recess of Congress, to obtain his sentiments
on the subject of the finances. In his answer, there
is not a lisp of his new system.
As to the third point, the question of an assump-
tion of the State debts by the United States was in
discussion when the convention that framed the
present government was sitting at Philadelphia, and
in a long conversation which I had with Mr. Madison
in an afternoon's walk, I well remember that we were
perfectly agreed in the expediency and propriety of
such a measure; though we were both of opinion
that it would be more advisable to make it a measure
of administration than an article of Constitution,
from the impolicy of multiplying obstacles to its re-
ception on collateral details.
Under these circumstances you will naturally
imagine that it must have been matter of surprise
to me when I was apprised that it was Mr. Madison's
intention to oppose my plan on both the last-men-
tioned points. Before the debate commenced,1 I
had a conversation with him on my report; in the
course of which I alluded to the calculation I had
1 Hamilton to Madison: "If Mr. Madison should be disengaged this
evening, Mr. Hamilton would be obliged by an opportunity of con-
versing with him at his lodgings for half an hour. If engaged this
evening he will thank him to say whether to-morrow evening will suit.
Wednesday."
5J6 Alexander Hamilton
made of his sentiments, and the grounds of that cal-
culation. He did not deny them ; but alleged in his
justification that the very considerable alienation of
the debt, subsequent to the periods at which he had
opposed a discrimination, had essentially changed
the state of the question ; and that as to the assump-
tion, he had contemplated it to take place as matters
stood at the peace. While the change of opinion
avowed on the point of discrimination diminished
my respect for the force of Mr. Madison's mind and
the soundness of his judgment; and while the idea
of reserving and setting afloat a vast mass of already
extinguished debt, as the condition of a measure,
the leading objects of which were an accession of
strength to the national government, and an assur-
ance of order and vigor in the national finances, by
doing away with the necessity of thirteen complicated
and conflicting systems of finance, appeared to me
somewhat extraordinary, yet my previous impres-
sions of the fairness of Mr. Madison's character, and
my reliance on his good-will towards me, disposed me
to believe that his suggestions were sincere, and even
on the point of an assumption of the debts of the
States as they stood at the peace, to lean towards
a co-operation in his views, till on feeling the ground
I found the thing impracticable, and on further re-
flection I thought it liable to immense difficulties.
It was tried and failed with little countenance.
At this time and afterwards repeated intimations
were given to me that Mr. Madison, from a spirit of
rivalship, or some other cause, had become person-
ally unfriendly to me; and one gentleman in par-
Private Correspondence 517
ticular, whose honor I have no reason to doubt,
assured me that Mr. Madison, in a conversation with
him, had made a pretty direct attempt to insinuate
unfavorable impressions of me. Still I suspended
my opinion on the subject. I knew the malevolent
officiousness of mankind too well to yield a very
ready acquiescence to the suggestions which were
made, and resolved to wait till time and more ex-
perience should afford a solution. It was not till the
last session that I became unequivocally convinced
of the following truth: "that Mr. Madison, co-
operating with Mr. Jefferson, is at the head of a fac-
tion decidedly hostile to me and my administration;
and actuated by views, in my judgment, subversive
of the principles of good government and dangerous
to the Union, peace, and happiness of the country/'
These are strong expressions, they may pain your
friendship for one or both of the gentlemen whom I
have named. I have not lightly resolved to hazard
them. They are the result of a serious alarm in my
mind for the public welfare, and of a full conviction
that what I have alleged is a truth, and a truth
which ought to be told, and well attended to by
all the friends of the Union and efficient national
government. The suggestion will, I hope, at least,
awaken attention free from the bias of former pre-
possessions.
This conviction, in my mind, is the result of a
long train of circumstances, many of them minute.
To attempt to detail them all would fill a volume.
I shall therefore confine myself to the mention of a
few.
518 Alexander Hamilton
First, — As to the point of opposition to me and
my administration.
Mr. Jefferson, with very little reserve, manifests
his dislike of the funding system generally, calling in
question the expediency of funding a debt at all.
Some expressions, which he has dropped in my pre-
sence (sometimes without sufficient attention to
delicacy), will not permit me to doubt on this point
representations which I have had from various re-
spectable quarters. I do not mean that he advo-
cates directly the undoing of what has been done,
but he censures the whole, on principles which, if
they should become general, could not but end in
the subversion of the system. In various conversa-
tions, with foreigners as well as citizens, he has
thrown censure on my principles of government and
on my measures of administration. He has pre-
dicted that the people would not long tolerate my
proceedings, and that I should not long maintain
my ground. Some of those whom he immediately
and notoriously moves have even whispered sus-
picions of the rectitude of my motives and conduct.
In the question concerning the bank he not only
delivered an opinion in writing against its constitu-
tionality and expediency, but he did it in a style and
manner which I felt as partaking of asperity and
ill humor toward me. As one of the trustees of the
sinking fund, I have experienced in almost every
leading question opposition from him. When any
turn of things in the community has threatened
either odium or embarrassment to me, he has not
been able to suppress the satisfaction which it gave
Private Correspondence 519
him. A part of this is, of course, information, and
might be misrepresentation, but it comes through so
many channels, and so well accords with what falls
under my own observation, that I can entertain no
doubt.
I find a strong confirmation in the following cir-
cumstances: Freneau, the present printer of the
National Gazette, who was a journeyman with Childs
& Swain, at New York, was a known Anti-federalist.
It is reduced to a certainty that he was brought to
Philadelphia by Mr. Jefferson to be the conductor of
a newspaper. It is notorious that contemporarily
with the commencement of his paper he was a clerk
in the Department of State, for foreign languages.
Hence a clear inference that his paper has been set
on foot and is conducted under the patronage and
not against the views of Mr. Jefferson. What then
is the complexion of this paper? Let any impartial
man peruse all the numbers down to the present day,
and I never was more mistaken if he does not pro-
nounce that it is a paper devoted to the subversion
of me and the measures in which I have had an
agency ; and I am little less mistaken if he does not
pronounce that it is a paper of a tendency generally
unfriendly to the government of the United States.
It may be said that a newspaper being open to all
the publications which are offered to it, its com-
plexion may be influenced by other views than those
of the editor. But the fact here is that whenever
the editor appears it is in a correspondent dress.
The paragraphs which appear as his own, the pub-
lications, not original, which are selected for his
520 Alexander Hamilton
press, are of the same malignant and unfriendly
aspect ; so as not to leave a doubt of the temper
which directs the publication. Again, Brown, who
publishes an evening paper called The Federal Ga-
zette, was originally a zealous Federalist, and person-
ally friendly to me. He has been employed by Mr.
Jefferson as a printer to the government for the pub-
lication of the laws, and for some time past, until
lately, the complexion of his press was equally bitter
and unfriendly to me and to the government.
Lately Col. Pickering, in consequence of certain
attacks upon him, got hold of some instances of mal-
conduct of his which have served to hold him in
check, and seemed to have varied his tone a little. I
don't lay so much stress on this last case as on the
former. There I find an internal evidence, which is
as conclusive as can be expected in any similar case.
Thus far as to Mr. Jefferson.
With regard to Mr. Madison, the matter stands
thus: I have not heard, but in the one instance to
which I have alluded, of his having held language
unfriendly to me in private conversation, but in his
public conduct there has been a more uniform and
persevering opposition than I have been able to
resolve into a sincere difference of opinion. I can-
not persuade myself that Mr. Madison and I, whose
politics had formerly so much the same point of de-
parture, should now diverge so widely in our opinions
of the measures which are proper to be pursued.
The opinion I once entertained of the candor and
simplicity and fairness of Mr. Madison's character,
has, I acknowledge, given way to a decided opinion
Private Correspondence 521
that it is one of a peculiarly artificial and com-
plicated kind. For a considerable part of the last
session Mr. Madison lay in a great measure perdu.
But it was evident from his votes and a variety of
little movements and appearances, that he was the
prompter of Mr. Giles and others who were the open
instruments of the opposition. Two facts occurred
in the course of the session which I view as unequi-
vocal demonstrations of his disposition towards me.
In one, a direct and decisive blow was aimed. When
the Department of the Treasury was established,
Mr. Madison was an unequivocal advocate of the
principles which prevailed in it, and of the powers
and duties which were assigned by it to the head of
the department. This appeared, both from his
private and public discourse, and I will add, that I
have personal evidence that Mr. Madison is as well
convinced as any man in the United States of the
necessity of the arrangement which characterizes
that establishment, to the orderly conducting of the
business of the finances. Mr. Madison nevertheless
opposed a reference to me to report ways and means
for the Western expedition, and combated, on prin-
ciple, the propriety of such references.
He well knew that if he had prevailed a certain
consequence was my resignation; that I would not
be fool enough to make pecuniary sacrifices and en-
dure a life of extreme drudgery without opportunity
either to do material good or to acquire reputation,
and frequently with a responsibility in reputation for
measures in which I had no hand, and in respect to
which the part I had acted, if any, could not be
522 Alexander Hamilton
known. To accomplish this point an effectual train,
as was supposed, was laid. Besides those who or-
dinarily acted under Mr. Madison's banners, several
who had generally acted with me, from various
motives — vanity, self-importance, etc., etc., — were
enlisted.
My overthrow was anticipated as certain, and Mr.
Madison, laying aside his wonted caution, boldly led
his troops, as he imagined, to a certain victory. He
was disappointed. Though late, I became apprised
of the danger. Measures of counteraction were
adopted, and when the question was called Mr. Madi-
son was confounded to find characters voting against
him whom he counted upon as certain. Towards the
close of the session another, though a more covert,
attack was made. It was in the shape of a proposi-
tion to insert in the supplementary act respecting
the public debt something by way of instruction to the
trustees "to make their purchases of the debt at
the lowest market price." In the course of the dis-
cussion of this point Mr. Madison dealt much in in-
sidious insinuations calculated to give an impression
that the public money, under my particular direc-
tion, had been unfaithfully applied to put undue
advantages in the pockets of speculators, and to
support the debt at an artificial price for their bene-
fit. The whole manner of this transaction left no
doubt in any one's mind that Mr. Madison was act-
uated by personal and political animosity. As to
this last instance, it is but candid to acknowledge
that Mr. Madison had a better right to act the enemy
than on any former occasion. I had, some short time
Private Correspondence 523
before, subsequent to his conduct respecting the
reference, declared openly my opinion of the views
by which he was actuated towards me, and my de-
termination to consider and treat him as a political
enemy. An intervening proof of Mr. Madison's un-
friendly intrigues to my disadvantage is to be found
in the following incident, which I relate to you upon
my honor, but, from the nature of it, you will per-
ceive in the strictest confidence: The President,
having prepared his speech at the commencement of
the ensuing session, communicated it to Mr. Madison
for his remarks. It contained, among other things,
a clause concerning weights and measures, hinting
the advantage of an invariable standard, which pre-
ceded, in the original state of the speech, a clause
containing the mint. Mr. Madison suggested a
transposition of these clauses and the addition of
certain words, which I now forget, imparting an im-
mediate connection between the two subjects. You
may recollect that Mr. Jefferson proposes that the
unit of weight and the unit in the coins shall be the
same, and that my propositions are to preserve the
dollar as a unit, adhering to its present quantity of
silver and establishing the same proportion of alloy
in the silver as in the gold coins. The evident de-
sign of this manoeuvre was to commit the President's
opinion in favor of Mr. Jefferson's idea in contradic-
tion to mine, and, the worst of it is, without his being
aware of the tendency of the thing. It happened
that the President showed me the speech, altered in
conformity to Mr. Madison's suggestion, just before
it was copied for the purpose of being delivered, I
524 Alexander Hamilton
remarked to him the tendency of the alteration. He
declared that he had not been aware of it, and had
no such intention, and without hesitation agreed to
expunge the words which were designed to connect
the two subjects.
This transaction, in my opinion, not only fur-
nishes a proof of Mr. Madison's intrigues in opposi-
tion to my measures, but charges him with an abuse
of the President's confidence in him, by endeavoring
to make him, without his knowledge, take part with
one officer against another in a case in which they
had given different opinions to the Legislature of the
country. I forbore to awake the President's mind to
this last inference, but it is among the circumstances
which have convinced me that Mr. Madison's true
character is the reverse of that simple, fair, candid
one which he has assumed. I have informed you
that Mr. Freneau was brought to Philadelphia by
Mr. Jefferson, to be conductor of a newspaper. My
information announced Mr. Madison as the means of
negotiation, while he was at New York last summer.
This, and the general coincidence and close intimacy
between the two gentlemen, leave no doubt that
their views are substantially the same.
Secondly, as to the tendency of the views of the
two gentlemen who have been named. Mr. Jefferson
is an avowed enemy to a funded debt. Mr. Madison
disavows, in public, any intention to undo what has
been done, but, in private conversation with Mr.
Charles Carroll, Senator, (this gentleman's name I
mention confidentially, though he mentioned the
matter to Mr. King and several other gentlemen as
Private Correspondence 525
well as myself, and if any chance should bring you
together you would easily bring him to repeat it to
you,) he favored the sentiment in Mr. Mercer's
speech, that a Legislature had no right to fund the
debt by mortgaging permanently the public re-
venues, because they had no right to bind posterity.
The inference is that what has been unlawfully done
may be undone.
The discourse of partisans in the Legislature, and
the publication in the party newspapers, direct their
main battery against the principle of a funded debt,
and represent it in the most odious light as a per-
fect Pandora's box.
If Mr. Barnwell of South Carolina, who appears
to be a man of nice honor, may be credited, Mr.
Giles declared, in a conversation with him, that if
there was a question for reversing the funding sys-
tem on the abstract point of the right of pledging
and the utility of preserving public faith, he should
be for reversal, merely to demonstrate his sense of
the defect of right and the inutility of the thing. If
positions equally extravagant were not publicly ad-
vanced by some of the party, and secretly counten-
anced by the most guarded and discreet of them, one
would be led, from the absurdity of the declaration,
to suspect misapprehension. But, from what is
known, any thing may be believed. Whatever were
the original merits of the funding system, after hav-
ing been so solemnly adopted, and after so great a
transfer of property under it, what would become of
the government should it be reversed? What of the
national reputation ? Upon what system of morality
526 Alexander Hamilton
can so atrocious a doctrine be maintained? In me,
I confess it excited indignation and horror!
What are we to think of those maxims of govern-
ment by which the power of a Legislature is denied
to bind the nation, by a contract in the affair of
property for twenty-four years? For this is pre-
cisely the case of the debt. What are to become of
all the legal rights of property, of all charters to cor-
porations, nay, of all grants to a man, his heirs and
assigns, for ever, if this doctrine be true? What is
the term for which a government is in capacity to
contract? Questions might be multiplied without
end, to demonstrate the perniciousness and absurd-
ity of such a doctrine.
In almost all the questions, great and small, which
have arisen since the first session of Congress, Mr.
Jefferson and Mr. Madison have been found among
those who are disposed to narrow the federal au-
thority. The question of a national bank is one
example. The question of bounties to the fisheries
is another. Mr. Madison resisted it on the ground of
constitutionality, till it was evident, by the inter-
mediate questions taken, that the bill would pass;
and he then, under the wretched subterfuge of a
change of a single word, " bounty" for " allowance,' '
went over to the majority, and voted for the bill.
On the militia bill, and in a variety of minor cases,
he has leaned to abridging the exercise of federal
authority, and leaving as much as possible to the
States; and he lost no opportunity of sounding the
alarm, with great affected solemnity, at encroach-
ments, meditated on the rights of the States, and of
Private Correspondence 527
holding up the bugbear of a faction in the govern-
ment having designs unfriendly to liberty.
This kind of conduct has appeared to me the more
extraordinary on the part of Mr. Madison, as I know
for a certainty, it was a primary article in his creed,
that the real danger in our system was the subver-
sion of the national authority by the preponderancy
of the State governments. All his measures have
proceeded on an opposite supposition. I recur again
to the instance of Freneau's paper. In matters of
this kind one cannot have direct proof of men's
latent views; they must be inferred from circum-
stances. As coadjutor of Mr. Jefferson in the estab-
lishment of this paper, I include Mr. Madison in the
consequences imputable to it. In respect to foreign
politics, the views of these gentlemen are, in my
judgment, equally unsound and dangerous. They
have a womanish attachment to France and a
womanish resentment against Great Britain. They
would draw us into the closest embrace of the former,
and involve us in all the consequences of her politics ;
and they would risk the peace of the country in their
endeavors to keep us at the greatest possible dis-
tance from the latter. This disposition goes to a
length, particularly in Mr. Jefferson, of which, till
lately, I had no adequate idea. Various circum-
stances prove to me that if these gentlemen were
left to pursue their own course, there would be, in
less than six months, an open war between the
United States and Great Britain. I trust I have a
due sense of the conduct of France towards this
country in the late revolution; and that I shall
528 Alexander Hamilton
always be among the foremost in making her every
suitable return; but there is a wide difference be-
tween this and implicating ourselves in all her poli-
tics; between bearing good-will to her and hating
and wrangling with all those whom she hates. The
neutral and the pacific policy appears to me to mark
the true path to the United States.
Having delineated to you what I conceive to be
the true complexion of the politics of these gentlemen,
I will not attempt a solution of these strange appear-
ances. Mr. Jefferson, it is known, did not in the
first instance cordially acquiesce in the new Constitu-
tion for the United States ; he had many doubts and
reserves. He left this country before we had ex-
perienced the imbecilities of the former.
In France, he saw government only on the side of
its abuses. He drank freely of the French philo-
sophy, in religion, in science, in politics. He came
from France in the moment of a fermentation, which
he had a share in exciting, and in the passions and
feelings of which he shared both from temperament
and situation. He came here probably with a too
partial idea of his own powers; and with the ex-
pectation of a greater share in the direction of our
councils than he has in reality enjoyed. I am not
sure that he had not peculiarly marked out for him-
self the department of the finances.
He came, electrified with attachment to France,
and with the project of knitting together the two
countries in the closest political bands.
Mr. Madison had always entertained an exalted
opinion of the talents, knowledge, and virtues of Mr.
Private Correspondence 529
Jefferson. The sentiment was probably reciprocal.
A close correspondence subsisted between them dur-
ing the time of Mr. Jefferson's absence from the
country. A close intimacy arose upon his return.
Whether any peculiar opinions of Mr. Jefferson's
concerning the public debt wrought a change in the
sentiments of Mr. Madison (for it is certain that the
former is more radically wrong than the latter), or
whether Mr. Madison, seduced by the expectation of
popularity, and possibly by the calculation of ad-
vantage to the State of Virginia, was led to change
his own opinion, certain it is that a very material
change took place, and that the two gentlemen were
united in the new ideas. Mr. Jefferson was indis-
creetly open in his approbation of Mr. Madison's
principles, upon his first coming to the seat of gov-
ernment. I say indiscreetly, because a gentleman
in the administration, in one department, ought not
to have taken sides against another, in another de-
partment. The course of this business and a variety
of circumstances which took place left Mr. Madison
a very discontented and chagrined man, and begot
some degree of ill-humor in Mr. Jefferson. Attempts
were made by these gentlemen, in different ways, to
produce a commercial warfare with Great Britain.
In this, too, they were disappointed. And, as they
had the liveliest wishes on the subject, their dissatis-
faction has been proportionably great ; and, as I had
not favored the project, I was comprehended in their
displeasure.
These causes, and perhaps some others, created,
much sooner than I was aware of it, a systematic
VOL. IX.— 34.
53° Alexander Hamilton
opposition to me, on the part of these gentlemen.
My subversion, I am now satisfied, has been long an
object with them.
Subsequent events have increased the spirit of
opposition and the feelings of personal mortification
on the part of these gentlemen.
A mighty stand was made on the affair of the bank.
There was much commitment in that case. I pre-
vailed. On the mint business I was opposed from
the same quarters and with still less success. In the
affair of ways and means for the Western expedi-
tion, on the supplementary arrangements concern-
ing the debt, except as to the additional assumption,
my views have been equally prevalent in opposition
to theirs. This current of success on the one side
and of defeat on the other has rendered the opposi-
tion furious, and has produced a disposition to sub-
vert their competitors, even at the expense of the
government.
Another circumstance has contributed to widen-
ing the breach. T is evident, beyond a question,
from every movement, that Mr. Jefferson aims with
ardent desire at the Presidential chair. This, too,
is an important object of the party-politics. It is
supposed, from the nature of my former personal
and political connections, that I may favor some
other candidate more than Mr. Jefferson, when the
question shall occur by the retreat of the present
gentleman. My influence, therefore, with the com-
munity becomes a thing, on ambitious and personal
grounds, to be resisted and destroyed. You know
how much it was a point to establish the Secretary
Private Correspondence 531
of State, as the officer who was to administer the
government in defect of the President and Vice-
President. Here, I acknowledge, though I took far
less part than was supposed, I ran counter to Mr.
Jefferson's wishes; but if I had had no other reason
for it, I had already experienced opposition from him,
which rendered it a measure of self-defence. It is
possible, too, (for men easily heat their imaginations
when their passions are heated,) that they have by
degrees persuaded themselves of what they may
have at first only sported to influence others, namely,
that there is some dreadful combination against
State government and republicanism; which, ac-
cording to them, are convertible terms. But there
is so much absurdity in this supposition, that the
admission of it tends to apologize for their hearts at
the expense of their heads. Under the influence of
all these circumstances the attachment to the govern-
ment of the United States, originally weak in Mr.
Jefferson's mind, has given way to something very
like dislike in Mr. Madison's. It is so counteracted
by personal feelings as to be more an affair of the
head than of the heart; more the result of a con-
viction of the necessity of Union than of cordiality
to the thing itself. I hope it does not stand worse
than this with him. In such a state of mind both
these gentlemen are prepared to hazard a great deal
to effect a change. Most of the important measures
of every government are connected with the treas-
ury. To subvert the present head of it, they deem
it expedient to risk rendering the government itself
odious; perhaps foolishly thinking that they can
532 Alexander Hamilton
easily recover the lost affections and confidence of
the people, and not appreciating, as they ought to
do, the natural resistance to government, which in
every community results from the human passions,
the degree to which this is strengthened by the or-
ganized rivality of State governments, and the infinite
danger that the national government, once rendered
odious, will be kept so by these powerful and inde-
fatigable enemies. They forget an old, but a very
just, though a coarse saying, that it is much easier
to raise the devil than to lay him. Poor Knox has
come in for a share of their persecutions, as a man
who generally thinks with me, and who has a por-
tion of the President's good- will and confidence. In
giving you this picture of political parties, my de-
sign is, I confess, to awaken your attention, if it has
not yet been awakened, to the conduct of the gentle-
men in question. If my opinion of them is founded,
it is certainly of great moment to the public weal
that they should be understood. I rely on the
strength of your mind to appreciate men as they
merit, when you have a clue to their real views.
A word on another point. I am told that serious
apprehensions are disseminated in your State as to
the existence of a monarchical party meditating the
destruction of State and republican government. If
it is possible that so absurd an idea can gain ground,
it is necessary that it should be combated. I assure
you, on my private faith and honor as a man, that
there is not, in my judgment, a shadow of founda-
tion for it. A very small number of men indeed
may entertain theories less republican than Mr. Jef-
Private Correspondence 533
ferson and Mr. Madison, but I am persuaded there
is not a man among them who would not regard
as both criminal and visionary any attempt to sub-
vert the republican system of the country. Most of
these men rather fear that it may not justify itself
by its fruits, than feel a predilection for a different
form; and their fears are not diminished by the
factious and fanatical politics which they find pre-
vailing among a certain set of gentlemen and threat-
ening to disturb the tranquillity and order of the
government.
As to the destruction of State governments, the
great and real anxiety is to be able to preserve the
national from the too potent and counteracting in-
fluence of those governments. As to my own
political creed, I give it to you with the utmost sin-
cerity. I am affectionately attached to the repub-
lican theory. I desire above all things to see the
equality of political rights, exclusive of all heredi-
tary distinction, firmly established by a practical
demonstration of its being consistent with the order
and happiness of society. As to State governments,
the prevailing bias of my judgment is that if they
can be circumscribed within bounds, consistent with
the preservation of the national government, they
will prove useful and salutary. If the States were
all of the size of Connecticut, Maryland, or New Jer-
sey, I should decidedly regard the local governments
as both safe and useful. As the thing now is, how-
ever, I acknowledge the most serious apprehensions,
that the government of the United States will not
be able to maintain itself against their influence. I
534 Alexander Hamilton
see that influence already penetrating into the na-
tional councils and preventing their direction. Hence,
a disposition on my part towards a liberal construc-
tion of the powers of the national government, and
to erect every fence, to guard it from depredations
which is, in my opinion, consistent with constitu-
tional propriety. As to any combination to pros- ;
trate the State governments, I disavow and deny it.
From an apprehension lest the judiciary should not
work efficiently or harmoniously, I have been de-
sirous of seeing some national scheme of connection
adopted as an amendment to the Constitution,
otherwise I am for maintaining things as they are;
though I doubt much the possibility of it, from a
tendency in the nature of things towards the pre-
ponderancy of the State governments.
I said that I was affectionately attached to the
republican theory. This is the real language of my
heart, which I open to you in the sincerity of friend-
ship; and I add that I have strong hopes of the
success of that theory; but, in candor, I ought also
to add that I am far from being without doubts. I
consider its success as yet a problem. It is yet to
be determined by experience whether it be consistent
with that stability and order in government which
are essential to public strength and private security
and happiness.
On the whole, the only enemy which Republican-
ism has to fear in this country is in the spirit of
faction and anarchy. If this will not permit the
ends of government to be attained under it, if it
engenders disorders in the community, all regular
Private Correspondence 535
and orderly minds will wish for a change, and the
demagogues who have produced the disorder will
make it for their own aggrandizement. This is the
old story. If I were disposed to promote monarchy
and overthrow State governments, I would mount
the hobby-horse of popularity; I would cry out
" usurpation," " danger to liberty," etc., etc.; I
would endeavor to prostrate the national govern-
ment, raise a ferment, and then "ride in the whirl-
wind, and direct the storm." That there are men
acting with Jefferson and Madison who have this in
view, I verily believe ; I could lay my finger on some
of them. That Madison does not mean it, I also
verily believe; and I rather believe the same of
Jefferson, but I read him upon the whole thus: " A
man of profound ambition and violent passions."
You must be by this time tired of my epistle.
Perhaps I have treated certain characters with too
much severity. I have, however, not meant to do
them injustice, and, from the bottom of my soul, be-
lieve I have drawn them truly; and it is of the ut-
most consequence to the public weal they should be
viewed in their true colors. I yield to this impres-
sion. I will only add that I make no clandestine
attacks on the gentlemen concerned. They are both
apprised indirectly from myself of the opinion I en-
tertain of their views. With the truest regard and
esteem.1
1 Reprinted from the History of the Republic, iv., 520. This long,
interesting, and most important letter was written at the time of the
troubles in the Cabinet. It is evidently much more than merely a
letter to a friend, and was undoubtedly written with a specific purpose,
probably to explain through Carrington to the Virginia Federalists
536 Alexander Hamilton
TO GENERAL OTHO H. WILLIAMS
Philadelphia, June 9, 1792.
My Dear Sir:
I feel myself not a little a delinquent in regard to
a certain paper you forwarded to me. I will now
explain the reason of its non-appearance. Though
I thought it a merited and a very good reproof on
certain folks, as well as calculated to throw useful
light on transactions interesting to the fame of our
deceased friend,1 as the business depending was taking
a favorable turn when I received your letter, I doubted
the expediency of starting any new game, lest it
should wound the pride and jar the nerves of more
than the individual meant to be chastised, so as
to perhaps do harm to a cause we both wish to
promote.
If things had continued on an unpromising train,
I should have been willing to have taken the chance
of the publication. In me it would have gratified
feelings of more than one kind.
I at first intended to reserve the publication for
the conclusion of the business, but then I doubted
whether it was worth while to stir again the ques-
tion. It could not serve the original purpose, and it
was not necessary to the fame of the General, that
stands unassailable with success.
If any impressions have fallen under your notice
why the writer had parted company with Madison and had attacked
Jefferson. It is the ablest and best exposition that we have of the
condition of politics at that time; and, although written by a party
leader is singularly moderate in tone and is clearly intended to be
fair to all.
1 General Greene, of whom General Williams had written a defence.
Private Correspondence 537
which induce you to think this last conclusion erro-
neous, the publication at this time will not be too
late for that purpose.
P. S. — With your permission, I will retain the
paper as an interesting record of some particulars
which were not before known to me.1
TO GOUVERNEUR MORRIS
Philadelphia, June 22, 1792.
My Dear Sir:
I accept your challenge to meet you in the field of
mutual confidential communication; though I can-
not always promise punctuality or copiousness. I
will, however, do the best I can.
Will it not be a necessary preliminary to agree
upon a cypher? One has been devised for me which,
though simple in execution, is tedious in prepara-
tion. I may shortly forward it. In the meantime
let us settle some appellations for certain official
characters. I will call,
The President, Scaevola. The Vice-President,
Sec'y of State, Scipio. Brutus.
Sec'y of Treasury, Paulus Sec'y of War, Sempro-
nius.
Attorney-General, Ly-
sander.
I I owe this letter, now first printed from the original, to the kindness
of Mr. Otho H. Williams, of Baltimore, the grandson of the Revolu-
tionary soldier. The paper referred to is among the Hamilton MSS.
in the State Department.
538
Alexander Hamilton
SENATORS
Robert Morris, Cato.
Rufus King, Leonidas.
Aaron Burr, Sasvius.
Monroe, Sydney.
Oliver Ellsworth, Virgin-
ius.
George Cabot, Portius.
Richard Henry Lee, Mar-
cus.
Ralph Izard, Themis-
tocles.
REPRESENTATIVES
James Madison, Tarquin.
Abraham Baldwin,
Hampden.
Mercer, Tacitus.
Thomas Fitzsimmons,
Cicero.
Jeremiah Wadsworth,
Titius.
Giles, Chronus.
Ames, Valerius.
John Lawrence, Solon.
Murray, Livy.
Egbert Benson, Crom-
well.
Jonathan Trumbull,
Quintus.
You see that I have avoided characteristic names.
In my next you shall have a sketch of the general
state of the country, its politics and parties. I
thank you for your calculations, as I will for every
suggestion you shall make. I shall seldom fail to
get either a new idea or a new appellation of an old
one. I shall endeavor to put in train, by this oppor-
tunity, the papers you advise to be sent to the Rus-
sian Ambassador. If your courage is not put to the
test by being put to wear what you have won, it will
not be my fault. Do you know enough of the
catechism in the vulgar tongue to fulfil what you
have lately undertaken? ■
1 Reprinted from Sparks's Life of Gouverneur Morris, vol. i., p. 373.
Private Correspondence 539
TO COLONEL HETH ' AND OTHERS
Philadelphia, June 26, 1792.
Gentlemen :
I have received your circular-letter of the 28th of
February last.
I consider it as addressed to me in the capacity of
a fellow-soldier, and in that capacity I now acknow-
ledge and answer it.
Respect for you, gentlemen, and for those on
whose behalf you write, does not permit me to be
silent, and in replying, the frankness which is due to
you and them, and which is not less due to my own
character, forbids me to dissemble.
My judgment does not accord with the views which
are announced in your letter. A perseverance in
them will not, I believe, be productive of any ad-
vantage to the parties, and may I fear be attended
with some public inconveniences, which I am per-
suaded they would regret.
I also have made sacrifices with the army, and,
what is less known, for the army. I feel that I love
those who remain of that respectable band, and that
no one can be more solicitous than myself for their
welfare. I trust, therefore, they will do justice to
my motives on the present occasion.2
1 Colonel William Heth, of Virginia.
aThis letter refers to a claim made by the army for compensation
for losses incurred by their having been paid in a depreciated cur-
rency. This movement had been made political in the South, and
the foundation of attacks on the North for buying soldiers' claims, and
also on Washington and Hamilton. A second circular was then
issued reiterating the claim and asking the co-operation of all officers.
This was the subject of Hamilton's letter.
540 Alexander Hamilton
TO WILLIAM SETON
(Private.)
June 26, 1792.
Dear Sir:
This accompanies an official letter. I acknow-
ledge I doubt the accuracy of the opinion of the
attorney-general on the last point. A law is not to
be so literally construed as to involve absurdity and
oppression. The Legislature might reasonably re-
strain its officers from future buying and selling of
stock, but could not reasonably prevent their making
a disposition of property which they had previously
acquired according to the laws of their country.
At the same time, for greater caution, I should in
my own case follow the strict interpretation.
All my property in the funds is about $800, 3 per
cents. These, at a certain period, I should have
sold, had I not been unwilling to give occasion to
cavil.
The restriction itself, as it respects the officers of
the treasury, and I rather think the commissioners
of loans, is a wise and unexceptionable one.
But the propriety of its further extension is not
obvious, and I doubt whether it will be lasting. The
act passed in a prodigious hurry.
TO RUFUS KING
Philadelphia, June 28, 1792.
My Dear King:
I have not, as you well may imagine, been in-
attentive to your political squabble. I believe you
Private Correspondence 541
are right (though I have not accurately examined),
but I am not without apprehension that a ferment
may be raised which may not be allayed when you
wish it. 'T is not to be forgotten that the opposers
of Clinton are the real friends to order and good
government, and that it will ill become them to give
an example to the contrary.
Some folks are talking of conventions and the
bayonet. But the case will justify neither a resort
to such principles nor to violence. Some amend-
ments of your election laws, and possibly the im-
peachment of some of the canvassers who have
given proofs of premeditated partiality, will be very
well, and it will answer good purposes to keep alive,
within proper bounds, the public indignation. But
beware of extremes!
There appears to be no definite declared objects of
the movements on foot, which render them more
ticklish. What can you do? What do you expect
to effect? ■
TO ELIAS BOUDINOT
Philadelphia, July 12, 1792.
Dear Sir:
I wrote you, a day or two since, on the subject of
the advertisement.
You recollect there is a power to borrow to be
1 Now first printed from the King papers in the possession of Dr.
Charles King. In R. King's handwriting on the opposite page is the
following: " I have had no agency in promoting the measures adopted
respecting the decision of the canvassers. I have, however, felt the
utmost indignation."
542 Alexander Hamilton
*
given to the committee, under the seal of the corpora-
tion. No time ought to be lost in preparing and
executing the power and making application for the
loan. Not more than $30,000, in addition to the
$10,000 already borrowed, need at first be asked for.
I shall write to Mr. Seton by to-morrow's post.
Pray, my friend, let nothing slumber.
TO WASHINGTON
Philadelphia, July 22, 1792.
Sir:
I wrote you on Monday last, transmitting a reso-
lution of the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund.
Nothing in the way of public business requiring your
attention has since occurred.
There is a matter I beg leave to mention to you
confidentially, in which your interposition, if you
deem it advisable, may have a good effect.
I have long had it at heart that some good system
of regulations for the forwarding supplies to the
army, issuing them there and accounting for them
to the Department of War, should be established.
On conversing with the Secretary at War, I do not
find that any such now exists; nor had the intima-
tions I have taken the liberty to give on the subject,
though perfectly well received, hitherto produced
the desired effect. The utility of the thing does not
seem to be as strongly impressed on the mind of the
Secretary at War as it is on mine.
It has occurred to me that if you should think fit
to call by letter upon the Secretary of the Treasury
Private Correspondence 543
and the Secretary at War to report to you the sys-
tem and regulations under which the procuring, issuing,
and accounting for supplies to the army is conducted,
it would produce what appears to be now wanting.
I submit the idea accordingly.
END OF VOL. IX
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